PERSONAL DE APOYO
PASTOR Nicolas
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Mycota of the Andean Yungas forests: Assessments of fungal biodiversity and habitat partitioning in a threatened ecosystem.
Autor/es:
JOZSEF GEML; EDUARDO R. NOUHRA; CHRISTIAN Y. WICAKSONO; NICOLÁS PASTOR; LISANDRO FERNANDEZ; ALEJANDRA G. BECERRA
Lugar:
New Haven, CT
Reunión:
Congreso; Mycological Society of America Annual Meeting; 2012
Institución organizadora:
Mycological Society of America
Resumen:
The Yungas, a system of subtropical montane forests on the eastern
slopes of the Andes, reach their southern limit in northwestern
Argentina. These forests are extremely diverse and, despite covering
only 2% of the country´s area, they harbour about 50% of Argentina´s
biodiversity. Unfortunately, the Yungas are among the ecosystems most
threatened by anthropogenic pressure and climatic changes. Previous
mycological works in the Yungas focused on wood-decay fungi (e.g.,
polypores) and mycorrhizae in Alnus acuminata cloud forests,
while diverse Yungas communities still remain virtually unexplored. We
carried out massively parallel pyrosequencing of ITS rDNA from soil
samples to provide the first kingdom-wide fungal biodiversity assessment
for the Yungas. Samples were taken in the three major forest types
along an altitudinal gradient: the piedmont forest (400-700 m asl), the
montane forest (700-1500 m asl), and the montane cloud forest
(1500-3000 m asl). Using a 97% similarity cut-off value, we delimited
1839 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in total. The majority
belonged to the phylum Ascomycota (52.49%), followed by Basidiomycota
(18.85%), Glomeromycota (0.012%), and various zygomycete lineages
(0.02%), while 24.91% showed highest similarity to other unidentified
environmental sequences and could not be assigned to phylum. The
distribution of the total 1839 OTUs among the major altitudinal
vegetation types were as follows: 909 OTUs in the piedmont forest, 826
in the montane forest and 929 in the montane cloud forest. Fungal
communities were significantly different among all three forest types,
with many OTUs showing strong habitat preference for a certain
altitudinal zone. Our data offers an unprecedented insight into the
fungal biodiversity of the Yungas and into the zonal changes in fungal
community structure, with potential applications in conservation
strategies to preserve the unique biodiversity of the Andean forests.