The Island Project - Fungal communities in boreal forest soils

This project investigates fungal communities in fine-scaled organic soil profiles in a long-term chronosequence of boreal forests. The forests are situated on 30 islands in the two lakes Hornavan and Uddjaure, in northern Sweden. The islands have burned with different frequency due to their different area to intercept lightning, and the forests represent a successional gradient ranging from 50 to 5000 years in age. The current project seeks to unravel the mechanisms for the observed long-term build-up of carbon in the organic soil profiles in the islands. It is highly relevant to increase understanding of these mechanisms to be able to adequately predict effects of climate change, forest management practices and other environmental changes on the large carbon stocks currently stored in boreal forest soils. Fungal ITS2 amplicons from organic soil profiles from boreal forest chronosequence.