Variation of fungi along the successional process of biological soil crusts in the Gurbantunggut Desert, Northwestern China

Fungi associated with BSCs may play several important roles within arid land ecosystems. The present study is to investigate fungal composition and community in different successional stages of BSCs using ITS sequence analysis. Fungal diversity in different BSC successional stage show obvious variation. BSCs type significantly alter fungal abundance. Fungal OTU composition and relative abundance showed obvious differences in successional processes of BSCs. The dominant fungal OTUs were affiliated with Verrucariales, Sordariales, Pleosporales and Lecanorales. Fungal sequences in different BSC stages were affiliated Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Mucoromycota. In different BSCs stages, Ascomycota dominated in fungi community and comprised 93.93% to 99.05% whereas Basidiomycota, Mucoromycota and unidentified fungi constituted minor proportion. Significant differences in fungal community were observed among different BSCs types. PH and soil bulk density were positively related with fungi community in bare sand and algal crust, whereas fungal community in lichen crust and moss crust were positively correlated with organic C, conductivity, soil moisture, urease and chlorophyll a. RDA analysis indicated that organic C, conductivity, soil moisture were positively correlated with unidentified Ascomycota and negatively correlated with Dothideomycetes, Pezizomycetes and Sordariomycetes.