Global AM fungi are dominating mycorrhizal communities in a tropical premontane dry forest in Laipuna, South Ecuador

Abstract Tropical dry forests are an intricate ecosystem with special adaptations to periods of drought. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) essential for plant survival in all terrestrial ecosystems but might be even greater importance as growth is limited due nutrient and water deficiency during the season. Ecuador highly endangered, studies about AMF communities scarce. We investigated community a premontane semi-deciduous forest South estimated diversity, distribution, composition study site based on operational taxonomic units (OTUs) compared results those from tropical montane rainforest páramo Ecuador. OTU delimitation was part small ribosomal subunit obtained by cloning Sanger sequencing. Nearly OTUs were Glomeraceae. The four frequent Glomus , comparison MaarjAM database revealed these globally distributed wide range ecological adaptations. Several shared virtual taxa Africa. Ordination analysis rainforests unique only few overlapping OTUs. Most that found both two continents .