Precipitation and temperature shape the biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi across the Brazilian Caatinga

• DOI: 10.1111/jbi.14376
• Publication Date: 2022-05-05T07:11:46Z
• Authors: Natália M. F. Sousa; Julien Roy; Stefan Hempel; Matthias C. Rillig; Leonor C. Maia
• Keywords: 0303 health sciences; 03 medical and health sciences; 13. Climate action; 15. Life on land

Abstract Aim Deterministic and neutral processes shape the biogeography of fungi. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), an important group plant root symbionts, remains poorly studied in Neotropics. Here, we provided first molecular survey AMF diversity tested whether environment or space shapes along a 12° latitudinal transect Brazilian Caatinga, unique tropical dry forest ecoregion. Location Brazil. Taxon (Glomeromycotina). Methods Soil samples were collected across 1500 km within Caatinga. communities characterized using Illumina LSU amplicon sequencing. Operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness, composition phylogenetic niche conservatism assessed univariate multivariate analyses, potential for new taxa discovery was with BLAST analysis against reference environmental sequences sets. Result Glomeraceae most abundant diverse family, resembling more Saharo‐Arabian Australian realms European croplands than other forests from South America, but 10% OTUs could be to science, especially Archaeospora , Claroideoglomus Acaulospora Gigaspora Dentiscutata Redeckera . showed strong biogeographical structure inconsistent classical gradient, which further differed between soil roots. best correlated precipitation; community converged richness increased towards both ends where precipitation increased. Root temperature, decreasing at higher temperatures. We found no evidence conservatism. Main conclusions Niche‐based driven by regional climate, importantly divergence among closely related taxa. Given expected future decrease increase climate change may strongly affect yet unknown biodiversity neotropical forests.