Metabarcoding reveals differences in fungal communities between unflooded versus tidal flat soil in coastal saline ecosystem.

In the saline-affected ecosystem, fungi have huge potential to promote growth, induce disease resistance and enhance tolerance against salt-stress of host plants. Since areas of plowland are gradually decreasing, the reclamation of coastal saline lands could play a crucial role in maintaining agricultural productivity and crop security globally. Therefore, it is of great significance to explore the fungal diversity in the coastal saline ecosystem. Here, we collected saline soil samples from unflooded areas and tidal flat areas, the two typical distinct landforms in coastal saline ecosystems, and used ITS metabarcoding to depict the diversity of fungal communities. We found that fungal species evenness had a remarkably higher variation from the tidal flat compared to unflooded soil samples. Furthermore, we also confirmed that the fungal niches differentiation reports in the coastal saline ecosystem. Our ITS based DNA sequencing revealed that both unflooded and tidal flat soil were mainly composed of amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) belonging to Ascomycota (93.43% and 86.91% respectively). Based on our findings, understanding the associations and distinctions of fungal microbiome between unflooded soil and tidal flat could provide the basis for the development of reclamation in coastal saline lands.