University of Tasmania
Browse

File(s) under permanent embargo

Fire regime, not time-since-fire, affects soil fungal community diversity and composition in temperate grasslands

journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-19, 05:29 authored by Egidi, E, McMullan-Fisher, S, Morgan, JW, May, T, Zeeman, B, Franks, AE
Frequent burning is commonly undertaken to maintain diversity in temperate grasslands of southern Australia. How burning affects below-ground fungal community diversity remains unknown. We show, using a fungal rDNA metabarcoding approach (Illumina MiSeq), that the fungal community composition was influenced by fire regime (frequency) but not time-since-fire. Fungal community composition was resilient to direct fire effects, most likely because grassland fires transfer little heat to the soil. Differences in the fungal community composition due to fire regime was likely due to associated changes that occur in vegetation with recurrent fire, via the break up of obligate symbiotic relationships. However, fire history only partially explains the observed dissimilarity in composition among the soil samples, suggesting a distinctiveness in composition in each grassland site. The importance of considering changes in soil microbe communities when managing vegetation with fire is highlighted.

History

Publication title

FEMS Microbiology Letters

Volume

363

Issue

17

Article number

fnw196

Number

fnw196

Pagination

1-11

ISSN

0378-1097

Department/School

School of Geography, Planning and Spatial Sciences

Publisher

Elsevier Science Bv

Place of publication

Po Box 211, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1000 Ae

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 FEMS

Repository Status

  • Restricted

Socio-economic Objectives

Assessment and management of Antarctic and Southern Ocean ecosystems

Usage metrics

    University Of Tasmania

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC