Local-scale spatial diversity patterns of ectomycorrhizal fungal communities in a subtropical pine-oak forest

This study aimed to analyze spatial patterns of soil ectomycorrhizal fungal (EMF) communities at the local scale in a subtropical pine-oak forest located in the Nearctic-Neotropical transition in central Mexico, to underpin biodiversity conservation strategies in forest fragments of this region. We used a spatially-explicit nested square sampling design with the same sampling representativeness at all scales and replicated three times. We detected 674 EMF OTUs within 19,200 m(2) and 65 OTUs on average per sample. Seventy percent of OTUs were detected in only 1-4 samples. Average community similarity was below 5%, showed minor change within 14 and 339 m distance and increased with the spatial grain used to compare the data. We found a high species-area relationship and beta diversity coefficients for soil fungi indicating that, at the local scale, increasing area by a constant factor of four represented an increase in OTU richness by a factor of two. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd and British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.