Wong, J. R. 2012. Impacts of agricultural disturbance on communities of selected soil fungi (Agaricomycetes). Thesis, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

The objective of this study was to use phylogeny-based and community-based analyses to compare the community composition of Agaricomycetes among four different agricultural treatments at the Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research (KBS LTER) site. A phylogenetic tree that included 591 ribosomal DNA sequences
previously obtained from KBS LTER documented the composition of Agaricomycete communities in each treatment. Sequences from KBS LTER were placed into 472 OTUs (putatively species-level operational taxonomic units defined by 99% or greater sequence similarity) and these were dominated by the Agaricales (with 330 OTUs), Cantharellales (39 OTUs), Hymenochaetales (29 OTUs), and Polyporales (23 OTUs). Multivariate statistical analyses incorporating phylogenetic information showed never tilled successional grasslands to be the most phylogenetically distinct treatment. The trend that phylotype and clade diversity decreased with increasing disturbance by tillage was consistent with results from previous individual studies emphasizing the importance of protecting remnant untilled grassland habitats.

Associated Treatment Areas:

T8 T7 T2 T1

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