Data from: Strong coupling of plant and fungal community structure across western Amazonian rainforests

The Amazon basin harbors a diverse ecological community that has a
critical role in the maintenance of the biosphere. Although plant and
animal communities have received much attention, basic information is
lacking for fungal or prokaryotic communities. This is despite the fact
that recent ecological studies have suggested a prominent role for
interactions with soil fungi in structuring the diversity and abundance of
tropical rainforest trees. In this study, we characterize soil fungal
communities across three major tropical forest types in the western Amazon
basin (terra firme, seasonally flooded and white sand) using 454
pyrosequencing. Using these data, we examine the relationship between
fungal diversity and tree species richness, and between fungal community
composition and tree species composition, soil environment and spatial
proximity. We find that the fungal community in these ecosystems is
diverse, with high degrees of spatial variability related to forest type.
We also find strong correlations between α- and β-diversity of soil fungi
and trees. Both fungal and plant community β-diversity were also
correlated with differences in environmental conditions. The correlation
between plant and fungal richness was stronger in fungal lineages known
for biotrophic strategies (for example, pathogens, mycorrhizas) compared
with a lineage known primarily for saprotrophy (yeasts), suggesting that
this coupling is, at least in part, due to direct plant–fungal
interactions. These data provide a much-needed look at an understudied
dimension of the biota in an important ecosystem and supports the
hypothesis that fungal communities are involved in the regulation of
tropical tree diversity.