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Title: Fungal diversity and chemical properties in agricultural and forest soils in Alaska

Author
item WINTON, LORETTA
item ZHANG, MINGCHU - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA
item SPARROW, STEVEN - UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA

Submitted to: Inoculum
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2008
Publication Date: 7/20/2008
Citation: Winton, L.M., Zhang, M., Sparrow, S.D. 2008. Fungal Diversity and Chemical Properties in Agricultural and Forest Soils in Alaska. Inoculum. 59:63.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fungal species diversity and community structure in soil is currently an active area of research but the majority of cultivation-independent studies have focused on soils in natural systems. We took replicate mineral phase soil samples from actively managed barley fields, partially managed fields in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and unmanaged forest lands near Delta Junction, Alaska. Soil pH was similar among the three land uses (~5.3). Soil total carbon was highest in samples from barley fields (60.4 g kg soil-1), and lowest in forest samples (42.5 g kg soil-1), with CRP in between (49.4 g kg soil-1). Total soil C showed a parallel pattern (from 1.9 g kg soil-1 for forest soils to 3.2 g kg soil-1 in barley). Ten-week incubations indicated that forest soil samples had the lowest active carbon pool (927 g kg-1 soil) in comparison with CRP (1,497 g kg-1 soil) and barley (1,608 g kg soil-1), and was lowest in mineralizable N (11.3 g kg soil-1) as compared to CRP (41.5 g kg soil-1) and barley (100.6 g kgsoil-1). We sequenced ITS clone libraries to compare soil fungal diversity among the three land uses. Seventy-three percent of 2124 sequenced clones could be assigned to fungal phyla, whereas the remainder were unresolved Fungi. In barley, 77% of the clones were assigned to 11 orders of Ascomycota, 14% to five orders in Basidiomycota, 8% to Zygomycota, and 1% to Glomeromycota. In CRP, 60% of the clones were in four orders of Ascomycota, 36% to six orders in Basidiomycota, 4% were in Zygomycota, and <1% in Glomeromycota. In forest soils, 52% were in eight orders of Ascomycota, 47% in 11 orders of Basidiomycota, and 1% in Zygomycota. The successive increase of Basidiomycota (and corresponding decrease of other taxa) from barley to CRP to forest correlates well with plant type, soil type, and management regime.