Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi.

Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach.

Long-term effects of forest fires on fungal community and soil properties along a hemiboreal Scots pine forest fire chronosequence.

We studied long-term effects of forest fires on the dynamics of soil fungal community along a post-fire chronosequence in hemiboreal Scots pine stands in north-western Estonia. Effects of fire on soil and fungi were studied on six sites that differed in time since fire (10, 21, 36, 67, 78 and 181 years ago), without further management interventions. Soil fungal communities along the chronosequence were dominated by soil saprotrophs and ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi.

Traces of in Northeastern Europe Extend Further Back in History than Expected.

Herbaria are a promising but still poorly applied information source for retrospective microbiological studies. In order to find any evidence of the virulent European origin of ash dieback agent and other fungal pathogens, we analyzed 109 leaf samples from three different Estonian botanical herbaria, sampled during 171 years from 20 ash species and cultivars, using a PacBio third-generation sequencing of the fungal internal transcribed spacer ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 ribosomal DNA region.

The Native and the Invasive Are Similar in Their Necrotrophic Growth Phase in Ash Leaves.

The populations of European ash and its harmless fungal associate are in decline owing to ash dieback caused by the invasive , a fungus that in its native range in Asia is a harmless leaf endophyte of local ash species. To clarify the behavior of and its spatial and temporal niche overlap with the invasive relative, we used light microscopy, fungal species-specific qPCR assays, and PacBio long-read amplicon sequencing of the ITS1-5.8S-ITS2 region to examine fungal growth and species composition in attached leaves of European ash.

Seasonal Dynamics of Fungi Associated with Healthy and Diseased Needles in Northern Europe.

The relationship between the ecological success of needle pathogens of forest trees and species richness of co-inhabiting endophytic fungi is poorly understood. One of the most dangerous foliar pathogens of pine is , which is a widely spread threat to northern European forests. We sampled two sites in Estonia and two in Norway in order to analyse the relations between the abundance of and overall fungal richness, specific fungal species composition, time of season, needle age and position in the canopy.

Vectors of Dutch Elm Disease in Northern Europe.

Potential Dutch elm disease vector beetle species were caught with pheromone bottle traps and handpicked in 2019: in total, seven species and 261 specimens were collected. The most common was , but by percent, the incidence of was highest in , followed by and . We analysed the beetles DNA using PacBio sequencing to determine vector beetles of .

Regional-Scale In-Depth Analysis of Soil Fungal Diversity Reveals Strong pH and Plant Species Effects in Northern Europe.

Soil microbiome has a pivotal role in ecosystem functioning, yet little is known about its build-up from local to regional scales. In a multi-year regional-scale survey involving 1251 plots and long-read third-generation sequencing, we found that soil pH has the strongest effect on the diversity of fungi and its multiple taxonomic and functional groups. The pH effects were typically unimodal, usually both direct and indirect through tree species, soil nutrients or mold abundance.

The Relationship between Fungal Diversity and Invasibility of a Foliar Niche-The Case of Ash Dieback.

European ash () is threatened by the invasive ascomycete originating from Asia. Ash leaf tissues serve as a route for shoot infection but also as a sporulation substrate for this pathogen. Knowledge of the leaf niche partitioning by indigenous fungi and is needed to understand the fungal community receptiveness to the invasion.