Large, high-severity burn patches limit fungal recovery 13 years after wildfire in a ponderosa pine forest

Publication date: Available online 4 October 2019Source: Soil Biology and BiochemistryAuthor(s): Suzanne M. Owen, Adair M. Patterson, Catherine A. Gehring, Carolyn H. Sieg, L. Scott Baggett, Peter Z. FuléAbstractOver the past three decades, wildfires in southwestern US ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa Lawson & C. Lawson) forests have increased in size and severity. These wildfires can remove large, contiguous patches of mature forests, alter dominant plant communities and increase woody debris, potentially altering fungal community composition. Additionally, post-fire conditions may shift dominant fungal functional groups from plant-symbiotic ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi to more saprotrophic fungi. We investigated the long-term (13 years post-wildfire) effect of fire severity on 1) fungal sporocarp density, functional groups and community composition and 2) EM colonization and community composition from naturally regenerating ponderosa pine seedlings on the Pumpkin Fire that burned in 2000 in Arizona, USA. Plots were located in four burn severity classes: unburned, moderate-severity, and two high-severity (defined as 100% tree mortality) classes, either adjacent to residual live forest edges (edge plots), or>200 m from any residual live trees (interior plots). We found that high-severity burn plots had a unique sporocarp community composition, and a shift in dominant sporocarp functional groups, with 5–13 times lower EM sporocarp densities, and 4–7 times lower EM sporocar...
Source: Soil Biology and Biochemistry - Category: Biology Source Type: research