Abstract
Abstract Plant–microbe interactions are fundamental to biodiversity maintenance and ecosystem functioning, and their assembly is shaped by a complex interplay of ecological and evolutionary processes. However, how these forces jointly influence ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungal communities, especially those dominant in subalpine forests, remains poorly understood. To address this, we investigated EcM fungal communities associated with 11 species of Pinaceae (Abies, Picea and Pinus) across 195 monodominant stands in the subalpine forests of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. We found that all pine species are consistently associated with a broad phylogenetic range of EcM fungal lineages, and that pine–EcM association networks exhibit low connectance, indicating low partner specificity. Variation in fungal community structure was significantly influenced by host identity, environmental factors and spatial distribution, but not by host phylogenetic relatedness. Notably, fungal taxa from three dominant lineages (Sebacina, Russula and Inocybe) were clustered phylogenetically with globally distributed Pinaceae-associated taxa, pointing to evolutionarily conserved symbiotic associations across biogeographic regions. Together, these results indicate that EcM fungal communities in subalpine Pinaceae forests are assembled through a combination of evolutionary conservatism and environmental filtering. The persistent association with key EcM fungi across Pinaceae species underscores their essential role in supporting tree physiology and forest ecosystem stability in subalpine environments.
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Claims 4
Claim · model-written summary
All pine species are consistently associated with a broad phylogenetic range of ectomycorrhizal fungal lineages.
- Interactor
- EcM fungal lineagese1symbiont
- Outcome
- phylogenetic range of EcM fungal lineagese1
- Qualifier
- consistently associatede1
PinusOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“11 species of Pinaceae (Abies, Picea and Pinus)”
e1“all pine species are consistently associated with a broad phylogenetic range of EcM fungal lineages”
Claim · model-written summary
Pine–ectomycorrhizal association networks have low connectance, indicating low partner specificity.
- Interactor
- EcM fungal lineagese1symbiont
- Outcome
- connectancee2
- Direction
- lowe2
- Qualifier
- indicating low partner specificitye2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“11 species of Pinaceae (Abies, Picea and Pinus)”
e1“all pine species are consistently associated with a broad phylogenetic range of EcM fungal lineages”
e2“pine–EcM association networks exhibit low connectance, indicating low partner specificity”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungal community structure was significantly influenced by host identity, environmental factors and spatial distribution, but not by host phylogenetic relatedness.
Verbatim
e0“11 species of Pinaceae (Abies, Picea and Pinus)”
e3“Variation in fungal community structure was significantly influenced by host identity, environmental factors and spatial distribution, but not by host phylogenetic relatedness”
Claim · model-written summary
Fungal taxa of the Sebacina, Russula and Inocybe lineages clustered phylogenetically with globally distributed Pinaceae-associated taxa.
Russula
Inocybe
SebacinaOrganisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“11 species of Pinaceae (Abies, Picea and Pinus)”
e4“fungal taxa from three dominant lineages (Sebacina, Russula and Inocybe) were clustered phylogenetically with globally distributed Pinaceae-associated taxa”