Soil fungal OTUs and survival interval of seedlings of study species

We conducted a field experiment to test the effect of elevated temperature on seedling mortality of a temperate tree species, <i>Prunus padus</i>, from a genus with known susceptibility to soil pathogens. The experiment included treatments of warming versus control, fungicide versus no fungicide, and distances from conspecific adults. The results showed that elevated temperature significantly increased seedling mortality of <i>P. padus</i>and this negative warming effect was only limited to the immediate vicinity of adults. We further showed that this increased soil feedback on <i>P. padus</i>was likely caused by the high frequency of pathogenic fungi induced by warming.