TY - JOUR
T1 - Climate and seasonality drive the richness and composition of tropical fungal endophytes at a landscape scale
AU - Oita, Shuzo
AU - Ibáñez, Alicia
AU - Lutzoni, François
AU - Miadlikowska, Jolanta
AU - Geml, József
AU - Lewis, Louise A.
AU - Hom, Erik F.Y.
AU - Carbone, Ignazio
AU - U’Ren, Jana M.
AU - Arnold, A. Elizabeth
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Understanding how species-rich communities persist is a foundational question in ecology. In tropical forests, tree diversity is structured by edaphic factors, climate, and biotic interactions, with seasonality playing an essential role at landscape scales: wetter and less seasonal forests typically harbor higher tree diversity than more seasonal forests. We posited that the abiotic factors shaping tree diversity extend to hyperdiverse symbionts in leaves—fungal endophytes—that influence plant health, function, and resilience to stress. Through surveys in forests across Panama that considered climate, seasonality, and covarying biotic factors, we demonstrate that endophyte richness varies negatively with temperature seasonality. Endophyte community structure and taxonomic composition reflect both temperature seasonality and climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation). Overall our findings highlight the vital role of climate-related factors in shaping the hyperdiversity of these important and little-known symbionts of the trees that, in turn, form the foundations of tropical forest biodiversity.
AB - Understanding how species-rich communities persist is a foundational question in ecology. In tropical forests, tree diversity is structured by edaphic factors, climate, and biotic interactions, with seasonality playing an essential role at landscape scales: wetter and less seasonal forests typically harbor higher tree diversity than more seasonal forests. We posited that the abiotic factors shaping tree diversity extend to hyperdiverse symbionts in leaves—fungal endophytes—that influence plant health, function, and resilience to stress. Through surveys in forests across Panama that considered climate, seasonality, and covarying biotic factors, we demonstrate that endophyte richness varies negatively with temperature seasonality. Endophyte community structure and taxonomic composition reflect both temperature seasonality and climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation). Overall our findings highlight the vital role of climate-related factors in shaping the hyperdiversity of these important and little-known symbionts of the trees that, in turn, form the foundations of tropical forest biodiversity.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102256575&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102256575&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s42003-021-01826-7
DO - 10.1038/s42003-021-01826-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 33750915
SN - 2399-3642
VL - 4
JO - Communications biology
JF - Communications biology
IS - 1
M1 - 313
ER -