Soil fungal community variation by large-scale reclamation in Sanjiang plain, China

Large-scale marshland reclamation can cause substantial changes to the soil fungal community by disturbances associated with the growth of crop plants and by the addition of fertilizers and pesticides. In this study, high-throughput sequencing of the fungal-specific internal transcribed spacer (ITS) gene region was used to identify fungal taxa. We analyzed the variation in soil fungi diversity and community composition in marshland, paddy, and farmland corn soils, and investigated the relationship between soil fungal community composition and soil physicochemical characteristics to quantify the effect of large-scale reclamation on marshland soil environment in the Sanjiang Plain, northeast China. Marshland soil contained most of the 1997 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) found across all sites (1241), while paddy soil had only 614 OTUs and farmland corn soil 817 OTUs. All reclaimed lands presented a decline in richness and diversity of soil fungi at the OTU level, and soil fungal richness was significantly different between marshland and reclaimed sites (P < 0.05), although it did not differ significantly between marshland and farmland corn sites. Additionally, soil fungal community composition showed different trends and structure after the reclamation. One-way analysis of variance showed Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, Glomeromycota, and Chytridiomycota composition differed significantly between marshland and reclaimed sites (P < 0.05). Nine dominant genera (relative abundance >1.5% in at least one site) and many unclassified genera showed significant variation between marshland and reclaimed sites, including Blumeria, Tomentella, Peziza, Hypholoma, Zopfiella, Mrakia, and Fusarium. Soil fungal community composition and diversity were affected by soil moisture, pH, total carbon (C), available nitrogen (N), soil organic carbon, soil dissolved organic carbon, and C/N (the ratio of total carbon to total nitrogen). The present results contribute to understanding the fungal community in marshland ecosystems, and the role of environmental variability as a predictor of fungal community composition.