Xue Yuanyuan, Liu Wei, Feng Qi, Zhu Meng, Zhang Jutao, Wang Lingge, Chen Zexia, Li Xuejiao
Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
Front Plant Sci. 2025 Jul 4;16:1579142. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1579142. eCollection 2025.
Understanding responses of soil fungal community characteristics to vegetation restoration is essential for optimizing artificial restoration strategies in alpine mining ecosystems. Despite its ecological significance, current comprehension regarding the structure composition and assembly mechanisms of soil fungal communities following vegetation restoration in these fragile ecosystems remains insufficient.
We used the high-throughput sequencing and null model analysis to determine the variations and environmental drivers of soil fungal community structures and assembly processes across different restoration chronosequences (natural plant sites, unrestored sites, 2-year restoration sites, and 6-year restoration sites) in a semiarid alpine coal mining region.
Artificial vegetation restoration significantly enhanced the α diversity of soil fungal communities while reducing β diversity. However, with prolonged restoration duration, we observed a significant decrease in α diversity accompanied by a corresponding increase in β diversity. Moreover, artificial restoration induced substantial modifications in soil fungal community composition. Taxonomic analysis demonstrated a distinct shift in dominant specialist species from Ascomycota in unrestored, natural plant, and 2-year restoration sites to Glomeromycota in 6-year restoration sites. Dispersal limitation and homogeneity selection were the predominant mechanism governing soil fungal community assembly, with its relative contributions varying significantly across restoration stages. In natural plant communities and unrestored sites, the structure of soil fungal community was primarily governed by dispersal limitation. The 2-year restoration sites exhibited a marked transition, with homogeneous selection emerging as the dominant assembly process, primarily influenced by soil sand content, total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), and belowground biomass (BGB). This transition was accompanied by a significant reduction in the contribution of dispersal limitation.
As restoration progressed, the importance of homogeneous selection gradually decreased, while dispersal limitation regained prominence, with community structure being predominantly regulated by soil clay content, soil moisture content (SMC), and TP. Our results underscore the critical role of soil texture and phosphorus availability in shaping soil fungal community dynamics throughout the revegetation process.
了解土壤真菌群落特征对植被恢复的响应，对于优化高寒矿区生态系统的人工恢复策略至关重要。尽管其具有生态意义，但目前对于这些脆弱生态系统植被恢复后土壤真菌群落的结构组成和组装机制的理解仍不充分。
我们利用高通量测序和空模型分析，确定了半干旱高寒煤矿区不同恢复时间序列（天然植物群落、未恢复区域、2年恢复区域和6年恢复区域）土壤真菌群落结构和组装过程的变化及其环境驱动因素。
人工植被恢复显著提高了土壤真菌群落的α多样性，同时降低了β多样性。然而，随着恢复时间的延长，α多样性显著下降，β多样性相应增加。此外，人工恢复导致土壤真菌群落组成发生了显著变化。分类学分析表明，优势专性物种从未恢复、天然植物群落和2年恢复区域的子囊菌门，明显转变为6年恢复区域的球囊菌门。扩散限制和同质选择是控制土壤真菌群落组装的主要机制，其相对贡献在不同恢复阶段有显著差异。在天然植物群落和未恢复区域，土壤真菌群落结构主要受扩散限制控制。2年恢复区域表现出明显的转变，同质选择成为主要的组装过程，主要受土壤砂含量、总磷（TP）、总钾（TK）和地下生物量（BGB）的影响。这种转变伴随着扩散限制贡献的显著降低。
随着恢复的进行，同质选择的重要性逐渐降低，而扩散限制重新变得突出，群落结构主要受土壤粘土含量、土壤水分含量（SMC）和TP的调节。我们的结果强调了土壤质地和磷有效性在整个植被恢复过程中塑造土壤真菌群落动态方面的关键作用。
