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  • Accepted Manuscript: Wildfire impacts on root‐associated fungi and predicted plant–soil feedbacks in the boreal forest: Research progress and recommendations

This content will become publicly available on October 17, 2023

Title: Wildfire impacts on root‐associated fungi and predicted plant–soil feedbacks in the boreal forest: Research progress and recommendations
Root-associated fungi play a critical role in plant ecophysiology, growth and subsequent responses to disturbances, so they are thought to be particularly instrumental in shaping vegetation dynamics after fire in the boreal forest. Despite increasing data on the distribution of fungal taxonomic diversity through space and time in boreal ecosystems, there are knowledge gaps with respect to linking these patterns to ecosystem function and process. Here we explore what is currently known about postfire root-associated fungi in the boreal forest. We focus on wildfire impacts on mycorrhizal fungi and the relationships between plant–fungal interactions and forest recovery in an effort to explore whether postfire mycorrhizal dynamics underlie plant–soil feedbacks that may influence fire-facilitated vegetation shifts. We characterize the mechanisms by which wildfire influences root-associated fungal community assembly. We identify scenarios of postfire plant–fungal interactions that represent putative positive and negative plant–soil feedbacks that may impact successional trajectories. We highlight the need for empirical field observations and experiments to inform our ability to translate patterns of postfire root-associated fungal diversity to ecological function and application in models. We suggest that understanding postfire interactions between root-associated fungi and plants is critical to predict fire effects on vegetation patterns, ecosystem function, future landscape more » flammability and feedbacks to climate. « less
Authors:
; ; ;
Award ID(s):
1636476
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10399368
Journal Name:
Functional Ecology
ISSN:
0269-8463
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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