Soil chemical properties, rather than landscape context, influence woodland fungal communities along an urban-rural gradient

Abstract

With the expansion of cities around the world there is a growing interest in the factors that influence biodiversity and ecosystem processes in urban areas. Fungi are exceptionally diverse and play key roles in ecosystem function, yet despite predictions of negative impacts due to urbanization, fungi have been generally overlooked in urban ecological studies. We surveyed fungi in 16 remnant river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis: Myrtaceae) woodlands along a gradient of 4-35km from the city of Melbourne (south-east Australia). Using both sporocarp surveys and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP; primer pair ITS1-F-ITS4), we examined relationships between fungal communi..