Keep your friends close: Host compartmentalisation of microbial communities facilitates decoupling from effects of habitat fragmentation

• Published in: Ecology letters 2021-12, Vol.24 (12), p.2674-2686
• Main Authors: Willing, Claire E., Pierroz, Grady, Guzman, Aidee, Anderegg, Leander D. L., Gao, Cheng, Coleman‐Derr, Devin, Taylor, John W., Bruns, Tom D., Dawson, Todd E., Crowther, Thomas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Community structure; compartmentalisation; Decoupling; Fragmentation; fungal ecology; Fungi; Habitat fragmentation; Habitat loss; Habitats; Heterogeneity; Host plants; Landscape ecology; Microbial activity; Microbiomes; Microbiota; Microorganisms; Mycobiome; Mycorrhizae; mycorrhizal fungi; Plant Roots; roots; Sequoia sempervirens (coast redwood); Soil; Soil Microbiology; Symbionts
• ISSN: 1461-023X; 1461-0248
• DOI: 10.1111/ele.13886

Root‐associated fungal communities modify the climatic niches and even the competitive ability of their hosts, yet how the different components of the root microbiome are modified by habitat loss remains a key knowledge gap. Using principles of landscape ecology, we tested how free‐living versus host‐associated microbes differ in their response to landscape heterogeneity. Further, we explore how compartmentalisation of microbes into specialised root structures filters for key fungal symbionts. Our study demonstrates that free‐living fungal community structure correlates with landscape heterogeneity, but that host‐associated fungal communities depart from these patterns. Specifically, biotic filtering in roots, especially via compartmentalisation within specialised root structures, decouples the biogeographic patterns of host‐associated fungal communities from the soil community. In this way, even as habitat loss and fragmentation threaten fungal diversity in the soils, plant hosts exert biotic controls to ensure associations with critical mutualists, helping to preserve the root mycobiome. Using the principles of landscape ecology, we tested how free‐living versus host‐associated microbes might differ in their response to landscape heterogeneity. Furthermore, we describe how compartmentalisation of microbes into specialised root structures filters for key fungal symbionts (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi). Even as habitat loss and fragmentation threaten fungal diversity in the soils, we found that plant hosts exert biotic controls to ensure associations with critical mutualists, helping to preserve the root mycobiome. Photo courtesy of Anthony Ambrose.