Variation in Microbiota and Chemical Components Within Pinus massoniana During Initial Wood Decay

Deadwood is essential for the forest ecosystem productivity and stability. A growing body of evidence indicates that deadwood-inhabiting microbes are effective decomposition agents, yet little is known about how changes in microbial communities during the initial deadwood decay. In a small forest area, we performed dense sampling from the top, middle, and bottom portions of two representative <i>Pinus massoniana</i> cultivars logs to track deadwood xylem microbiota shift during the initial deadwood decay. We found xylem mycobiota varied dramatically during the initial deadwood decay. Deadwood microbes might largely originate from the endophytic microbes of living trees during the initial deadwood decay. Notably, bark type is an important driving factor for xylem mycobiota changes during the initial deadwood decay. Ten upregulated metabolites were screened out by a univariate analysis approach. Moreover, our correlation analysis suggests that enriched microbes at class level was significantly correlated with the upregulated metabolites during the initial deadwood decay. Our work provides new insights into the process of mycobiota and metabolite changes during the initial deadwood decay.