Foliar fungal communities of Norway spruce in a tree species diversity gradient in mature European forests

Foliar fungal species are diverse and colonize all plants, though whether forest tree species composition influences the distribution of these fungal communities remains unclear. To determine fungal community shifts along a tree species diversity gradient, needles of Norway spruce were sampled from trees from four mature European forests in Germany, Finland, Romania and Poland. DNA was extracted and subjected to 454 pyrosequencing. We hypothesized that the fungal communities and specific fungal taxa would correlate with tree species diversity. High-throughput sequencing showed significant differences in the fungal communities in the different forests, and in one forest, tree diversity effects were observed, though this was not a general phenomenon.