Comparison of Soil Higher Fungal Communities between Dead and Living <i>Abies koreana</i> in Mt. Halla, the Republic of Korea

To improve our understanding of the relationship between soil higher fungi (belonging to Ascomycota and Basidiomycota) and <i>Abies koreana</i>, we surveyed <i>A. koreana</i> soil fungal communities in a forest in Mt. Halla, Jeju Island, Korea by next-generation sequencing (Illumina Miseq). To confirm the soil higher fungal communities, we collected two types of soils from a defined plot: soils with dead (AKDTs) and living <i>A. koreana</i> (AKLTs), respectively. Soil fungi were classified into 2 phyla, 19 classes, 64 orders, 133 families, 195 genera, and 229 OTUs (895,705 sequence reads). Nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed significantly different soil higher fungal communities between AKDTs and AKLTs (<i>p</i> A. koreana status (<i>p</i> Clavulina spp. was different between soils with AKDTs and AKLTs, suggesting that <i>Clavulina</i> spp. may be a crucial soil fungal species influencing <i>A. koreana</i>. This study will lead to a better understanding of the ecological status of <i>A. koreana</i> in Mt. Halla. In addition, this study could be useful for the conservation and management of <i>A. koreana</i> habitats.