Geographic distribution of needle litter microfungi in British Columbia

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Abstract

The geographic distribution of microfungal diversity associated with needle litter was investigated in British Columbia, south-western Canada. A total of 77 microfungal species were isolated from needle litters of nine tree species in Pseudotsuga, Tsuga, Picea, and Abies collected in 25 coniferous forest sites that varied in climatic conditions and geographic locations. The nonmetric multidimensional scaling ordination showed the segregation of microfungal species composition between the study sites and needle species, which was significantly correlated to the latitude, elevation, mean annual temperature, and mean temperature at coldest and warmest months of the sites. Major microfungal species showed variable responses to these environmental factors: Trichoderma polysporum and Penicillium miczynskii tended to occur at higher elevations and latitudes and lower temperatures, compared with other species of the same genera. In contrast to the species composition, the mean number of species was not significantly affected by needle species, geographic locations, or climatic conditions. Applying variation partitioning to disentangle the relative effect of the environmental and spatial factors indicated the role of not only climatic but spatial factors in structuring fungal assemblages, suggesting the contribution of such non-niche processes as priority effect and dispersal limitation.

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