Data from: Ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi respond differently to long-term experimentally increased snow depth in the High Arctic

Changing climate is expected to alter precipitation patterns in the
Arctic, with consequences for subsurface temperature and moisture
conditions, community structure, and nutrient mobilization through
microbial belowground processes. Here, we address the effect of increased
snow depth on the variation in species richness and community structure of
ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and saprotrophic fungi. Soil samples were collected
weekly from mid-July to mid-September in both control and deep snow plots.
Richness of ECM fungi was lower, while saprotrophic fungi was higher in
increased snow depth plots relative to controls. [Correction added on 23
September 2016 after first online publication: In the preceding sentence,
the richness of ECM and saprotrophic fungi were wrongly interchanged and
have been fixed in this current version.] ECM fungal richness was related
to soil NO3-N, NH4-N, and K; and saprotrophic fungi to NO3-N and pH. Small
but significant changes in the composition of saprotrophic fungi could be
attributed to snow treatment and sampling time, but not so for the ECM
fungi. Delayed snow melt did not influence the temporal variation in
fungal communities between the treatments. Results suggest that some
fungal species are favored, while others are disfavored resulting in their
local extinction due to long-term changes in snow amount. Shifts in
species composition of fungal functional groups are likely to affect
nutrient cycling, ecosystem respiration, and stored permafrost carbon.