Soil fungal communities in distinct vegetation types of Padjelanta National park

We studied soils of historical grazing fields and surrounding vegetation, collectively forming a system of gradients from grasslands (AM) to either heathland (ErM) or forest (ECM) in the boreo-alpine ecotone. Comparisons of historical photographs have documented that although rather stable, some of these grasslands are slowly being colonized by the surrounding vegetation from the edges. The high degree of stability of these systems are likely due to strong positive plant-soil interactions in all the vegetation types, including the historical grazing fields. Thus, this is a unique system to study above-belowground interactions across a landscape-level mosaic of ecosystems dominated by,and transitioning between, different mycorrhizal types, without other confounding effects such as climate.