The succession of soil fungal communities during forest growth: Comparisons between tree planting and assisted natural regeneration

The recovery of ecosystem functioning to the natural forests is one of the main challenges of forest restoration worldwide these days. While monoculture plantations have been the most common practice of forest restoration, a number of studies have demonstrated that these forests have lower levels of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning than natural forests. While monoculture plantations have been expanding rapidly on the deforested land but there is a growing interest in natural regeneration (also as known as passive forest restoration). Some studies have compared vegetation recovery with and without human intervention. However, little is known about the succession of soil fungi during forest development even though they play a vital role in regulating multiple ecosystem functions such as nutrient cycles, plant growth, and carbon budget. Here we aimed to compare the successional development and the recovery of soil fungal communities among different forest types.