Diverse ectomycorrhizal fungi communities found in urban reserve soils and scats of small mammals when compared to native forest

Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) play an essential role in forest health. In
urban reserves, there is a complex interplay between environmental
factors, including anthropogenic stressors that influence the composition
and structure of EMF communities, which in turn may affect their plant
hosts and the presence of small mammals as dispersers. We aimed to assess
the response of EMF to urbanisation by comparing the diversity and
composition of their communities in small mammal scats and soil samples
from urban reserves to those in native forest sites through ITS1
barcoding. Additionally, we analysed the effect of seasonality and the
identity of small mammal vectors on EMF diversity present in scat samples.
The datasets linked to our analyses include csv files with the identified
EMF species and their abundance in samples of small mammal scats and soil.
We found that EMF diversity was strongly influenced by the sample type
(soil vs. scats). In soil samples, EMF communities in urban reserves were
as diverse as in forest sites, with similar richness and Shannon’s
diversity index (H’); however, their composition differed. In scat
samples, we found no differences in EMF richness, H’, or composition
between site types. Seasonality did not affect EMF diversity in soil
samples, while in scat samples, EMF diversity was higher in autumn,
characterised by higher agaricoid EMF richness compared to scats collected
in spring. Hypogeous gasteroid EMF richness was higher in scat samples
collected in spring than in autumn. The lack of seasonal patterns we
observed in our soil samples may reflect abrupt changes in rainfall in our
study area. We found that scats of Antechinus stuartii had higher EMF
diversity compared to those of Rattus fuscipes. This finding is surprising
as A. stuartii is primarily insectivorous. We conclude that urban reserves
serve as important refuges for EMF and that the small mammal vectors
within these reserves may disperse a significantly diverse pool of EMF.