Foliar and soil fungal communities collected from across a temperate elevation gradient

The goals of this study were to (1) examine the roles of host genetics and environment in structuring fungal community composition and (2) to determine how fungal guilds (pathogens, saprobes, ectomycorrhizal fungi, and arbuscuar mycorrhizal fungi varied across an environmental gradient. We accomplished this by collecting soil and needle samples associated with 66 individual tree hosts of three different species of conifers (Douglas-fir, Western hemlock, Pacific yew) across a 1000 meter elevation gradient present in Oregon, USA. The low elevation sites we considered to be more environmentally mild, with greater relative humidity, a shorter growing season and less extreme temperature fluctuations relative to the higher elevation sites. In this study and with this data set, we were able to discern the role of climate in determining guild level diversity, relative abundance and host specificity of each of the fungal communities.