High Variability of Fungal Communities Associated with the Functional Tissues and Rhizosphere Soil of Picea abies in the Southern Baltics

Climate change, which leads to higher temperatures, droughts, and storms, is expected have a strong effect on both health of forest trees associated biodiversity. The aim this study was investigate the diversity composition fungal communities with functional tissues rhizosphere soil healthy-looking Picea abies better understand these their potential tree in process climate change. sites included 30 P. stands, where needles, shoots, roots, sampled. DNA isolated from individual samples, amplified using ITS2 rRNA as marker subjected high-throughput sequencing. sequence analysis showed presence 232,547 high-quality reads, following clustering were found represent 2701 non-singleton OTUs. highest absolute richness OTUs (1895), then needles (1049) shoots (1002), lowest roots (641). overall community composed Ascomycota (58.3%), Basidiomycota (37.2%), Zygomycota (2.5%), Chytridiomycota (1.6%), Glomeromycota (0.4%). most common fungi based read abundance Aspergillus pseudoglaucus (7.9%), Archaeorhizomyces sp. (3.6%), Rhinocladiella (2.0%). Pathogens relatively rare, among Phacidium lacerum (1.7%), Cyphellophora sessilis (1.4%), Rhizosphaera kalkhoffii (1.4%). results that detected generally high, but relative varied greatly different sites, thereby highlighting complexity interactions host trees, fungi, local environmental conditions.