TY - JOUR
T1 - Biogeography of plant-associated fungal symbionts in mountain ecosystems
T2 - A meta-analysis
AU - Kivlin, Stephanie N.
AU - Lynn, Joshua S.
AU - Kazenel, Melanie R.
AU - Beals, Kendall K.
AU - Rudgers, Jennifer A.
N1 - Funding Information:
National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Number: DEB1354972
Funding Information:
This work was supported by NSF DEB1354972 to Kivlin and Rudgers. We thank Jason Hoeksema and Wolfgang Viechtbauer for advice on using metafor with our dataset, and four anonymous referees for recommendations that greatly improved this manuscript. We also thank L. Ranelli for early contributions to dataset development and for inspiring this literature-based project when she broke her foot during the field season.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2017/8/30
Y1 - 2017/8/30
N2 - Aim: Predicting the potential for climate change to disrupt host–microbe symbioses requires basic knowledge of the biogeography of these consortia. In plants, fungal symbionts can ameliorate the abiotic stressors that accompany climate warming and thus could influence plants under a changing climate. Forecasting future plant–microbe interactions first requires knowledge of current fungal symbiont distributions, which are poorly resolved relative to the distributions of plants. Location: We used meta-analysis to summarize the biogeographic distributions of plant-fungal symbionts in mountain ecosystems worldwide, because these ecosystems are likely to be among the first to experience climate change-induced range shifts. Methods: We analysed 374 records from 53 publications to identify general trends, pinpoint areas in need of greater study and develop reporting guidelines to facilitate future syntheses. Results: Elevational patterns varied strongly among fungal and plant functional groups. Fungal diversity and abundance increased with altitude for the ectomycorrhizal fungi. However, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and localized foliar endophytes declined in either abundance or diversity with altitude. In shrubs, fungal abundance increased with elevation, but in C3 grasses, fungal abundance declined with elevation. Altitudinal patterns in fungal composition were stronger than gradients in fungal abundance or diversity, suggesting that species turnover contributes more to elevational gradients in fungal symbionts than does variation in abundance or richness. Plant functional groups were overrepresented by C3 grasses and trees, with surprisingly few data on sedges or shrubs, despite their ecological dominance in mountain ecosystems. Similarly, epichloae, ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and root endophytes were understudied relative to other fungal groups. Main Conclusions: Meta-analysis revealed broad biogeographic patterns in plant-fungal symbiont abundance, diversity and composition that inform predictions of future distributions.
AB - Aim: Predicting the potential for climate change to disrupt host–microbe symbioses requires basic knowledge of the biogeography of these consortia. In plants, fungal symbionts can ameliorate the abiotic stressors that accompany climate warming and thus could influence plants under a changing climate. Forecasting future plant–microbe interactions first requires knowledge of current fungal symbiont distributions, which are poorly resolved relative to the distributions of plants. Location: We used meta-analysis to summarize the biogeographic distributions of plant-fungal symbionts in mountain ecosystems worldwide, because these ecosystems are likely to be among the first to experience climate change-induced range shifts. Methods: We analysed 374 records from 53 publications to identify general trends, pinpoint areas in need of greater study and develop reporting guidelines to facilitate future syntheses. Results: Elevational patterns varied strongly among fungal and plant functional groups. Fungal diversity and abundance increased with altitude for the ectomycorrhizal fungi. However, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and localized foliar endophytes declined in either abundance or diversity with altitude. In shrubs, fungal abundance increased with elevation, but in C3 grasses, fungal abundance declined with elevation. Altitudinal patterns in fungal composition were stronger than gradients in fungal abundance or diversity, suggesting that species turnover contributes more to elevational gradients in fungal symbionts than does variation in abundance or richness. Plant functional groups were overrepresented by C3 grasses and trees, with surprisingly few data on sedges or shrubs, despite their ecological dominance in mountain ecosystems. Similarly, epichloae, ericoid mycorrhizal fungi and root endophytes were understudied relative to other fungal groups. Main Conclusions: Meta-analysis revealed broad biogeographic patterns in plant-fungal symbiont abundance, diversity and composition that inform predictions of future distributions.
KW - altitudinal gradients
KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
KW - ectomycorrhizal fungi
KW - ericoid mycorrhizal fungi
KW - foliar endophytes
KW - fungal distributions
KW - root endophytes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028541648&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/ddi.12595
DO - 10.1111/ddi.12595
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028541648
SN - 1366-9516
VL - 23
SP - 1067
EP - 1077
JO - Diversity and Distributions
JF - Diversity and Distributions
IS - 9
ER -
