Dynamics of fungal communities in boreal peatlands. Climate change impacts on fungi

Here we use two newly developed rDNA primer sets that directly target the phylum Ascomycota and another that recovers all other fungal phyla to examine the effects of experimental climate change on fungal communities from a well-characterized nutrient-poor boreal peatland. Specifically we evaluated the hypothesis that changes in temperature, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and hydrological changes to the water table associated with future climate change will result in a reduction in fungal species richness and a shift in fungal community composition possibly reflecting degradative succession.