Soils harbor a high diversity of microbes—as many as 100 species of fungi within a square meter. If different species target different components of litter, a more diverse community of fungi should lead to faster decomposition rates. We examined the hypotheses that variation in substrate use among fungal groups and variation in nitrogen availability are both important controls over the diversity of fungi in an Alaskan boreal forest. Nitrogen availability was considered because microbes are often N-limited, and because humans are altering N availability via anthropogenic N deposition and global warming. We used nucleotide analogs to link fungal groups with their role in decomposition in field samples. Leaf litter collected from the forest floor was supplemented with one of four N-containing compounds. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU, a thymidine analog) was also added. After 48 hours incubation, DNA was extracted. Most growing fungi should have assimilated the BrdU into new DNA. Their genetic identity was determined using oligonucleotide fingerprinting of rRNA genes (OFRG). OFRG is an rRNA gene profiling method that sorts genes into taxonomic groups with a high degree of resolution, and has a large capacity for sample processing. Fungal groups that proliferated following the addition of a given compound probably metabolized that compound.

Results/Conclusions

We found that fungal taxa varied in their responses to different substrates, indicating that they differed in substrate use. Specifically, community composition of fungi was significantly different among substrate treatments (P < 0.001). In addition, of the 15 dominant taxa, seven displayed significant preferences for one substrate over another. For instance, taxa within the Helotiales preferred glutamate (P = 0.001); Sporidiales, tannin-protein complexes (P = 0.014); Saccharomycetales, arginine (P = 0.042); and Polyporales, arginine and lignocellulose (P = 0.040). In a complementary experiment, we used BrdU labeling to characterize effects of N fertilization on fungal community composition. We observed that N fertilization decreased the richness of fungal taxa by 22%. Helotiales and Saccharomycetales tended to increase under N fertilization, whereas Polyporales did not change significantly. Together, these results indicate that shifts in the community composition of fungi under anthropogenic N deposition could lead to changes in nutrient dynamics.