Community characteristics of actively foraging soil fungi across a disturbance gradient in lowland Dipterocarp rainforest in Borneo

The rainforests of SE Asia are a global hotspot of biodiversity and forest degradation. Selective logging and forest conversion to oil palm plantation has major implications for biogeochemical cycling and carbon storage that are underpinned by plant-soil interactions. Soil fungi are key regulators of carbon and mineral nutrient flows between above- and below-ground organisms, yet understanding of fungal community-productivity relationships in hyper-diverse tropical forests is lacking. Recent studies suggest sensitivity of soil fungal communities to land-use change, although impacts on actively foraging fungi and fungal productivity remain largely unresolved. To address this gap, we installed hyphal in-growth bags for six months in old-growth (OG), selectively-logged (SL) forest and oil palm plantation (OP) in Bornean lowland rainforest. Mycelial fungal communities were characterised by ITS amplicon sequencing, for comparison with mycelial production estimated by measurement of fungal hyphae.