{"id":965,"date":"2017-08-09T11:02:43","date_gmt":"2017-08-09T18:02:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/?p=965"},"modified":"2017-08-09T11:05:03","modified_gmt":"2017-08-09T18:05:03","slug":"unearthing-unseen-identifying-drivers-fungal-diversity-panamanian-rainforests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/inspiration\/2017\/08\/09\/unearthing-unseen-identifying-drivers-fungal-diversity-panamanian-rainforests\/","title":{"rendered":"Unearthing the Unseen: Identifying drivers of fungal diversity in Panamanian rainforests"},"content":{"rendered":"

When our roommates or family members get sick, we try to keep our distance and avoid catching their illness. Plants get \u2018sick\u2019 too, and in the natural world, this may actually explain the coexistence and diversity of plant species that we see.<\/p>\n

Coexistence<\/h3>\n

Species coexistence<\/a> relies on competition between individuals of the same species being larger than competition between individuals of different species. Competition between individuals of the same species must be large enough to keep any species from taking over and outcompeting all other species in the community. However, more recent work has highlighted the role of natural pathogens. Stable coexistence of many species may be favored if individuals of one species cannot live in close proximity to each other due to disease.<\/p>\n

Plant Pathogens and Biodiversity<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>

View looking south from the canopy tower at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort over the confluence of the Panama Canal and the Chagres River near Gamboa, Panama.<\/p><\/div>\n

For example, picture a crowded forest with many adult trees of the same species releasing wind-dispersed seeds (like the helicoptering seeds of a maple). Very few, if any, of the seeds that fall near to the adult trees will germinate and reach maturity. As you walk away from the clump of adult trees, you will begin to find more germinated seeds that reach maturity (Augspurger 1983<\/a>). These seeds are farther from tough competitors of the same species (adult trees) and are away from the plant pathogens that may be living in the adult root system. In our hypothetical forest, the plant pathogens that feed on young maples are keeping maple from dominating the forest, allowing other species that aren\u2019t affected by the pathogen to thrive; in this way, plant pathogens play a role in the maintenance of biodiversity.<\/p>\n

Drivers of Biodiversity<\/h3>\n

Our guest this week, Tyler Schappe<\/a>, studies interactions among plants and fungi in the Neotropical forests of Panama. Tyler is broadly interested in what drives the maintenance and diversity of fungal communities, and how this, in turn, can affect tree communities. Tyler spent the summer of 2015 collecting 75 soil cores from three forest plots in Panama. Using DNA sequencing with universal genetic markers, he was then able to identify the fungi within the soil cores to species and functional group (decomposers, pathogens, plant mutualists, etc.). So far, Tyler has found that tree communities and soil nutrients affect the composition and diversity of fungal guilds differently. As expected, guilds that form mutualistic relationships with trees are more strongly correlated with plant communities. Interestingly, soil properties influence the species composition of all fungal guilds, including plant pathogens, pointing to the mediating role of soils as an abiotic filter. Overall, Tyler\u2019s results, along with other research, show that soil fungal communities are an integral component of the plant-soil relationship since they are driven by, and can affect, both. Together, plants, soil, and fungi form a tightly connected three-way relationship, and wanting to understand one of them means having to study all three together.<\/p>\n