The impact of anthropogenic disturbance on mycorrhizal fungi and their associations with rodents: insights from a temperate forest in Mexico

Ecosystem functioning is influenced by biological diversity, ecological interactions, abiotic conditions, and anthropogenic disturbance. This study examines how anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., land use change) affects arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) in soil and rodent scat samples. We collected soil samples and rodent scats at five pairs of sites (i.e., anthropogenically disturbed vs. undisturbed temperate forests), in Michoacan, Mexico. Using DNA barcoding of partial internal transcribed region 1 (ITS) sequences, we identified 112 mycorrhizal fungi species. We found that there was a higher richness of EMF in undisturbed soil samples compared to disturbed soil samples and a higher AMF diversity in rodent scats for disturbed sites. Additionally, scat samples showed a high incidence of both AMF (75%) and EMF (100%) in rodent scats. However, we found significant differences in the diversity of both AMF and EMF depending on the rodent species acting as ve..., This study was conducted in the municipality of Nuevo San Juan Parangaricutiro, Michoacan, Mexico. We selected ten sites in the area to assess the effects of anthropogenic disturbance (i.e., land use change) on mycorrhizal fungal communities and their associations with their putative rodent dispersers. We followed a paired design, where five of the sites were located under continuous forest cover (undisturbed) and the other five were in small patches that had undergone significant anthropogenic change (disturbed).
Soil samples were collected during the wet season (August 2022). Each sample was composed of ten soil cores collected with a sterilised PVC tube of 5 cm in diameter at a depth of 5 cm. For pine and shrub soil samples we selected five individual plants, spaced at least 20 m from each other, within the rodent trapping grid (see below). We then collected two soil cores at 30 cm to the base of each individual plant. For the bare soil samples, we collected a pair of soil cores alon..., , # The impact of anthropogenic disturbance on mycorrhizal fungi and their associations with rodents: insights from a temperate forest in Mexico

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2cct](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.stqjq2cct)

## Description of the data and file structure

The data consists on sequence readings of DNA extracted from soil and scat samples using the segment of the internal transcribed region, ITS1, which was amplified using the primer set ITS1F (5'-CTTGGTCATTTAGAGGAAGTAA-3') and ITS1/2 (5'-TCCTCCGCTTATTGATATGC-3'). Sequencing was performed at MR DNA ([www.mrdnalab.com](http://www.mrdnalab.com), Shallowater, TX, USA) on an Illumina MiSeq following the manufacturer’s guidelines. The resulting DNA sequences were processed using the MR DNA analysis pipeline (MR DNA, Shallowater, TX, USA). All zOTUs were taxonomically classified using the Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST) in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Genbank online repository ([www.ncbi....,