Diversity Analysis of Soil Fungus Communities in Disturbed, Nursery, and Mature Forest Conditions

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Campus where you would like to present

Ellensburg

Event Website

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source

Start Date

18-5-2020

Abstract

Success of revegetation efforts is often limited by poor soil quality. The Forest Service and WS-DOT will face this reality when they introduce plants to the I-90 wildlife overpass. One proposed solution is to inoculate the bridge with native soil plugs to restore microbial communities. Establishment of diverse soil fungi communities will have great positive impact on soil quality and increase survivorship of introduced plants. This study will provide an analysis of community structure and diversity of fungi in the soils on the bridge, in the nursery soils where the plants are being primed for transplantation, and at a possible site for native soil plug collection. Future studies of the crossing structure will use this project as a baseline. A total of 121 soil cores have been gathered from the four sites, and fungal DNA was extracted from each core. After sequence data are returned from MrDNA labs, the sequences will be designated to operational taxonomic units. OTUs will then be sorted according to mycorrhizal or saprophytic lifestyle and examined for overlap between the sites. Diversity indices will be calculated from species richness and evenness. Reduced diversity and saprophyte-dominant communities are expected in soils on the crossing structure due to intense disturbance. The nurseries are anticipated to have moderate diversity indices as a result of constant low-level disturbance and known prevalence of particular species. Soils surrounding Swamp Lake are characterized by numerous hosts and low disturbance, so are predicted to contain diverse fungal communities of late succession species.

Faculty Mentor(s)

Jim Johnson

Department/Program

Biological Sciences

Additional Mentoring Department

https://cwu.studentopportunitycenter.com/2020/04/diversity-analysis-of-soil-fungus-communities-in-disturbed-nursery-and-mature-forest-conditions/

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May 18th, 12:00 PM

Diversity Analysis of Soil Fungus Communities in Disturbed, Nursery, and Mature Forest Conditions

Ellensburg

Success of revegetation efforts is often limited by poor soil quality. The Forest Service and WS-DOT will face this reality when they introduce plants to the I-90 wildlife overpass. One proposed solution is to inoculate the bridge with native soil plugs to restore microbial communities. Establishment of diverse soil fungi communities will have great positive impact on soil quality and increase survivorship of introduced plants. This study will provide an analysis of community structure and diversity of fungi in the soils on the bridge, in the nursery soils where the plants are being primed for transplantation, and at a possible site for native soil plug collection. Future studies of the crossing structure will use this project as a baseline. A total of 121 soil cores have been gathered from the four sites, and fungal DNA was extracted from each core. After sequence data are returned from MrDNA labs, the sequences will be designated to operational taxonomic units. OTUs will then be sorted according to mycorrhizal or saprophytic lifestyle and examined for overlap between the sites. Diversity indices will be calculated from species richness and evenness. Reduced diversity and saprophyte-dominant communities are expected in soils on the crossing structure due to intense disturbance. The nurseries are anticipated to have moderate diversity indices as a result of constant low-level disturbance and known prevalence of particular species. Soils surrounding Swamp Lake are characterized by numerous hosts and low disturbance, so are predicted to contain diverse fungal communities of late succession species.

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/source/2020/COTS/18