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Published on: June 30, 2020
Fire-severity effects on plant-fungal interactions after a novel tundra wildfire disturbance: implications for arctic
Rebecca E Hewitt1,2, Teresa N Hollingsworth3, F Stuart Chapin Iii4
1Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA. rebecca.hewitt@nau.edu.
Background:
Vegetation change in high latitude tundra ecosystems is expected to accelerate due to increased wildfire activity. High-severity fires increase the availability of mineral soil seedbeds, which facilitates recruitment, yet fire also alters soil microbial composition, which could significantly impact seedling establishment.
Results:
We investigated the effects of fire severity on soil biota and associated effects on plant performance for two plant species predicted to expand into Arctic tundra. We inoculated seedlings in a growth chamber experiment with soils collected from the largest tundra fire recorded in the Arctic and used molecular tools to characterize root-associated fungal communities. Seedling biomass was significantly related to the composition of fungal inoculum. Biomass decreased as fire severity increased and the proportion of pathogenic fungi increased.
Conclusions:
Our results suggest that effects of fire severity on soil biota reduces seedling performance and thus we hypothesize that in certain ecological contexts fire-severity effects on plant-fungal interactions may dampen the expected increases in tree and shrub establishment after tundra fire.
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