Impacts of large herbivores on mycorrhizal fungal communities across the Arctic

Mycorrhizal fungi play an integral role in nutrient and carbon cycling in soils, which may be especially important in the Arctic, one of the world's most soil carbon‐rich regions. Large mammalian herbivores can influence these fungi through their impacts on vegetation and soil conditions, however the strength and prevalence of these interactions in the Arctic is still uncertain. We collected soils from 15 large mammal exclusion experiments across the Arctic. We sequenced both ITS regions and partial SSU regions using two sets of amplicons to determine the composition of soil mycorrhizal fungal communities. This allowed us to assess how these communities are impacted by exclusion of large mammalian herbivores, plant communities, and climate and soil properties. Large mammalian herbivore exclusion had a significant impact on the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) community dissimilarity between sites. The AM community was also influenced by growing season temperature and pH, which may indicate that conditions are becoming more favourable for these species in some Arctic communities. Large herbivore exclusion did not have a coherent impact on ectomycorrhizal and ericoid mycorrhizal fungal community dissimilarity, which were primarily correlated with δ 15 N signature in the soil, rather than herbivory, climate, or plant functional types. The consistent detection of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi identified highlights the need for more thorough evaluations of these communities and their role in Arctic carbon and nutrient dynamics, as these fungi are currently understudied in the Arctic.

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Publication Details

Journal
Ecography
Published
2025-12-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/ecog.08045
Primary Topic
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Impacts of large herbivores on mycorrhizal fungal communities across the Arctic

Svetlana Abdulmanova, Maja K. Sundqvist, Laura Gough, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir et al.
Ecography
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
article

Impacts of large herbivores on mycorrhizal fungal communities across the Arctic

Svetlana Abdulmanova, Maja K. Sundqvist, Laura Gough, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, Cole G. Brachmann, C. E. Tweedie, Alf Ekblad, Johan Olofsson, Maija Sujala, Robert G. Björk, Päivi Mäkiranta, Brendan Furneaux, Otso Suominen, Tinghai Ou, M. Syndonia Bret‐Harte, Kirsten A. Reid, Robert D. Hollister, Amanda Young, Elin Lindén, Anna Rosling, Aleksandr Sokolov, Isabel C. Barrio, Hannu Fritze, Martin Ryberg, Rauni Partanen, Oula Kalttopää
article en

Abstract

Mycorrhizal fungi play an integral role in nutrient and carbon cycling in soils, which may be especially important in the Arctic, one of the world's most soil carbon‐rich regions. Large mammalian herbivores can influence these fungi through their impacts on vegetation and soil conditions, however the strength and prevalence of these interactions in the Arctic is still uncertain. We collected soils from 15 large mammal exclusion experiments across the Arctic. We sequenced both ITS regions and partial SSU regions using two sets of amplicons to determine the composition of soil mycorrhizal fungal communities. This allowed us to assess how these communities are impacted by exclusion of large mammalian herbivores, plant communities, and climate and soil properties. Large mammalian herbivore exclusion had a significant impact on the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) community dissimilarity between sites. The AM community was also influenced by growing season temperature and pH, which may indicate that conditions are becoming more favourable for these species in some Arctic communities. Large herbivore exclusion did not have a coherent impact on ectomycorrhizal and ericoid mycorrhizal fungal community dissimilarity, which were primarily correlated with δ 15 N signature in the soil, rather than herbivory, climate, or plant functional types. The consistent detection of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi identified highlights the need for more thorough evaluations of these communities and their role in Arctic carbon and nutrient dynamics, as these fungi are currently understudied in the Arctic.

EcographyVol. 2026(2)
Agricultural University of Iceland (IS), Uppsala University (SE), Memorial University of Newfoundland (CA), University of Helsinki (FI), University of Alaska Fairbanks (US), University of Turku (FI), The University of Texas at El Paso (US), University of Iceland (IS), Örebro University (SE), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), Natural Resources Institute Finland (FI), Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology (RU), Towson University (US), Grand Valley State University (US), University of Gothenburg (SE), Umeå University (SE), University of Jyväskylä (FI)
National Science Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, Aurora Research Institute, European Commission, Vetenskapsrådet, Háskóli Íslands, Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, Uppsala Multidisciplinary Center for Advanced Computational Science
Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
Mycorrhizal Fungi and Plant Interactions
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