Fungal community succession in poplar plantations of northern China

Afforestation is widely implemented to restore degraded dryland ecosystems, yet how long-term stand development shapes soil fungal communities remains poorly understood. This project investigates soil fungal communities along a chronosequence of poplar plantations (5-40 years) established on converted sandy grasslands in the Horqin Sandy Land, northern China. The goal is to understand how stand age influences fungal diversity, community composition, functional groups, co-occurrence networks, and assembly processes, and how these changes relate to soil multifunctionality. The findings will provide insights into the ecological processes underlying successful afforestation in semi-arid regions