Soil fungal networks moderate density-dependent survival and growth of seedlings

Pathogenic and mutualistic fungi have contrasting effects on seedling establishment, but it remains unclear whether density-dependent survival and growth are regulated by access to different types of mycorrhizal fungal networks supported by neighbouring adult trees. We first collected root samples of seedlings with different conspecific densities, and analysed the root-associated fungi by high-throughput sequencing, to compare the relative abundances of pathogenic and mycorrhizal fungi in response to host density.