TY - JOUR

T1 - First Evidence That Nematode Communities in Deadwood Are Related to Tree Species Identity and to Co-Occurring Fungi and Prokaryotes

AU - Moll, Julia

AU - Roy, Friederike

AU - Bässler, Claus

AU - Heilmann-Clausen, Jacob

AU - Hofrichter, Martin

AU - Kellner, Harald

AU - Krabel, Doris

AU - Schmidt, Jan Henrik

AU - Buscot, François

AU - Hoppe, Björn

N1 - Funding Information: Funding: This research was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), grant numbers BA5127/1‐1, BU 941/26‐1, HO 1961/6‐1, HO 6077/1‐3 and KE 1742/2‐1. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - Nematodes represent a diverse and ubiquitous group of metazoans in terrestrial environments. They feed on bacteria, fungi, plants, other nematodes or parasitize a variety of animals and hence may be considered as active members of many food webs. Deadwood is a structural component of forest ecosystems which harbors many niches for diverse biota. As fungi and bacteria are among the most prominent decomposing colonizers of deadwood, we anticipated frequent and diverse nematode populations to co‐occur in such ecosystems. However, knowledge about their ability to colonize this habitat is still limited. We applied DNA‐based amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) of the 18S rRNA gene to analyze nematode communities in sapwood and heartwood of decaying logs from 13 different tree species. We identified 247 nematode ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) from 27 families. Most of these identified families represent bacterial and fungal feeders. Their composition strongly depended on tree species identity in both wood compartments. While pH and water content were the only wood properties that contributed to nematodes’ distribution, co‐occurring fungal and prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea) α‐ and β‐ diversities were significantly related to nematode communities. By exploring thirteen different tree species, which exhibit a broad range of wood characteristics, this study provides first and comprehensive insights into nematode diversity in deadwood of temperate forests and indicates connectivity to other wood‐inhabiting organisms.

AB - Nematodes represent a diverse and ubiquitous group of metazoans in terrestrial environments. They feed on bacteria, fungi, plants, other nematodes or parasitize a variety of animals and hence may be considered as active members of many food webs. Deadwood is a structural component of forest ecosystems which harbors many niches for diverse biota. As fungi and bacteria are among the most prominent decomposing colonizers of deadwood, we anticipated frequent and diverse nematode populations to co‐occur in such ecosystems. However, knowledge about their ability to colonize this habitat is still limited. We applied DNA‐based amplicon sequencing (metabarcoding) of the 18S rRNA gene to analyze nematode communities in sapwood and heartwood of decaying logs from 13 different tree species. We identified 247 nematode ASVs (amplicon sequence variants) from 27 families. Most of these identified families represent bacterial and fungal feeders. Their composition strongly depended on tree species identity in both wood compartments. While pH and water content were the only wood properties that contributed to nematodes’ distribution, co‐occurring fungal and prokaryotic (bacteria and archaea) α‐ and β‐ diversities were significantly related to nematode communities. By exploring thirteen different tree species, which exhibit a broad range of wood characteristics, this study provides first and comprehensive insights into nematode diversity in deadwood of temperate forests and indicates connectivity to other wood‐inhabiting organisms.

KW - Amplicon sequencing

KW - Bacteria

KW - Decomposition

KW - Metabarcoding

KW - Nematode diversity

KW - Temperate forest

KW - Trophic interactions

U2 - 10.3390/microorganisms9071454

DO - 10.3390/microorganisms9071454

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 34361890

AN - SCOPUS:85108991222

VL - 9

JO - Microorganisms

JF - Microorganisms

SN - 2076-2607

IS - 7

M1 - 1454

ER -