Ecological corridors homogenize plant root endospheric mycobiota

Abstract

Ecological corridors promote species coexistence in fragmented habitats where dispersal limits species fluxes. The corridor concept was developed and investigated with macroorganisms in mind, while microorganisms, the invisible majority of biodiversity, were disregarded. We analyzed the effect of corridors on the dynamics of endospheric fungal assemblages associated with plant roots at the scale of 1 m over 2 years (i.e. at five time points) by combining an experimental corridor-mesocosm with high-throughput amplicon sequencing. We showed that plant root endospheric mycobiota were sensitive to corridor effects when the corridors were set up at a small spatial scale. The endospheric mycobiota of connected plants had higher species richness, lower beta-diversity, and more deterministic assembly than the mycobiota of isolated plants. These effects became more pronounced with the development of host plants. Biotic corridors composed of host plants may thus play a key role in the spatial dynamics of microbial communities and may influence microbial diversity and related ecological functions.