fungal diversity in peatland

Boreal peatlands play a crucial role in global carbon cycling. Due to Because of the imbalance between net primary production and decomposition, peatlands act as an important carbon sink. Environmental and nutritional gradients within peatlands might have a strong effect on structure and composition of their microbial communities, and, therefore, on the rate of carbon release and accumulation. However, there is very little information available on how peatland microbial communities as well as wood-inhabiting fungi are influenced by environmental factors. In this study, we have investigated the taxonomic and functional diversity of fungal communities in the soil and wood in of the boreal peatland using 454 high-throughput sequencing and. The results of molecular identification were supplemented by fruiting bodies surveys. We have also compared the fungal communities during primary colonisation of wood with those of the surrounding soils. Wood decay rates in peatland soils were analysed both in the field and under the laboratory conditions. We have shown the ectomycorrhiza-forming fungi dominated the peatland fungal communities. On contrary, saprotrophic species were more abundant during wood colonisation. White-rot and brown-rot fungi were significantly underrepresented in the studied samples. Our data suggest that both species competition and chemical composition might limit the spread of those two groups of fungi into soil humus layer and, in this way, contribute to the low rate of organic litter decomposition in boreal ecosystems.