Diversity of Soil Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Different Coniferous Forests in Fanjing Mountain

PurposeTo study the environmental factors influencing distribution and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, by investigating the diversity and distribution of AM fungi in soils from different coniferous forests in Fanjing Mountain.

MethodsA total of seven kinds of rhizosphere soil in coniferous forest were collected, and wet sieve decantation-sucrose centrifugation method and morphological identification method were used to separate and identify AM fungal spores, and determine the spore diversity index.

ResultsAM fungi species in the rhizosphere soil of seven kinds of coniferous forests in Fanjing Mountain were rich and diverse, and a total of 29 species in 10 genera had been identified. Acaulospora had an important value of 67.74%, which was the dominant genus; Glomus and Sclerocystis were mainly distributed in rhizosphere soil of coniferous forests at low altitude; the important value of Acaulospora increased with the altitude increasing, which was the dominant genus at high altitude. The spore density, species abundance and Shannon-Wiener index of AM fungi in the rhizosphere soil of Tsuga longibracteata forest and Cunninghamia lanceolate forest were the lowest and highest, respectively. The species of AM fungi in the rhizosphere soil of C. lanceolata forest and Pinus massoniana forest were extremely similar, and the Sorenson similarity coefficient was 0.756 8.

ConclusionIn coniferous ecosystems, altitude is an important environmental factor affecting differences in the distribution and diversity of AM fungal species, which is also an important contributor to the differences in forest types. At the same altitude, different coniferous and understory plants are important factors influencing differences in the genus distribution and diversity of AM fungi.