Arctic plant-fungus interaction networks show major rewiring with environmental variation
: Parisy, Bastien; Schmidt, Niels M.; Cirtwill, Alyssa R.; Villa-Galaviz, Edith; Tiusanen, Mikko; Klutsch, Cornelya F. C.; Aspholm, Paul E.; Raundrup, Katrine; Vesterinen, Eero J.; Wirta, Helena; Roslin, Tomas
Publisher: SPRINGERNATURE
: LONDON
: 2024
: Communications earth & environment
: COMMUNICATIONS EARTH & ENVIRONMENT
: COMMUN EARTH ENVIRON
: 735
: 5
: 9
: 2662-4435
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01902-w
: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01902-w
: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/477045592
Global environmental change may lead to changes in community structure and in species interactions, ultimately changing ecosystem functioning. Focusing on spatial variation in fungus-plant interactions across the rapidly changing Arctic, we quantified variation in the identity of interaction partners. We then related interaction turnover to variation in the bioclimatic environment by combining network analyses with general dissimilarity modelling. Overall, we found species associations to be highly plastic, with major rewiring among interaction partners across variable environmental conditions. Of this turnover, a major part was attributed to specific environmental properties which are likely to change with progressing climate change. Our findings suggest that the current structure of plant-root associated interactions may be severely altered by rapidly advancing global warming. Nonetheless, flexibility in partner choice may contribute to the resilience of the system.Fungus-plant interactions in the Arctic are highly pliable and can alter under changing temperature and soil conditions, according to modelling of plant and fungal communities using DNA metabarcoding data.
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This research was supported by various funders of which we are thankful. BP and TR were funded by the Academy of Finland (VEGA, grant 322266 to TR). TR was also funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC-synergy grant 856506—LIFEPLAN). BP was further supported by a grant from the Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth foundation. Field work was supported by an INTERACT Transnational and Remote Access grant (Call 2020, project VEGA). While no permissions were needed to conduct our sampling in Toolik, Ny-Ålesund, Varanger Peninsula, and Gandvik Valley, we obtained the necessary permits for sampling in Kilpisjärvi from Metsähallitus, and for sampling in Kobbefjord and Zackenberg from the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Research, Government of Greenland.
