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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.

Sec. Terrestrial Microbiology

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1544163

The six-year decomposition of coarse woody debris drives shifts in soil fungal communities in subtropical forests

Provisionally accepted
Nan  WangNan Wang1*Binle  DingBinle Ding2Hui  ChenHui Chen1Tingsi  XieTingsi Xie1Shangbin  BaiShangbin Bai1Hua  ChenHua Chen3Xiaocheng  PanXiaocheng Pan1*
  • 1Jiyang College, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Zhuji, China
  • 2Forest and Biotechnology College, Zhejiang A&F University, linan, China
  • 3University of Illinois at Springfield, Springfield, Illinois, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Coarse woody debris (CWD) plays a vital role in forest ecosystems, serving as a reservoir for carbon sequestration. While global climate change is expected to exacerbate forest disturbances and lead to a significant accumulation of CWD, the effect of CWD decomposition on the composition, diversity and functional traits of soil fungal communities remains unclear, especially for subtropical forests with high tree species diversity. Here, we conducted a six-year in situ field experiment (2018–2024) in a subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in southern China. We used high-throughput sequencing and qPCR to examine how decomposition of three dominant tree species (conifer, broadleaved, and woody monocot moso bamboo) influences soil fungal composition, and applied the FUNGuild tool to infer fungal trophic modes and functional groups from sequencing data. We found that six years of CWD decomposition significantly increased soil organic carbon (SOC), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) while reducing soil pH. Bamboo CWD showed the highest SOC and MBC accumulation. High-throughput sequencing of the ITS1 region indicated a statistically significant increase in α-diversity and a marked differentiation in β-diversity of fungal communities following decomposition. Taxonomic analysis identified Ascomycota and Basidiomycota as the dominant fungal phyla. CWD decomposition was associated with observable differences in taxonomic composition, specifically an increase in the Basidiomycota-to-Ascomycota ratio. Key gener as such as Geminibasidium, Trichoderma, and Trechispora exhibited species-specific responses to both CWD decomposition and tree species identity. Functional analysis via FUNGuild revealed an increased relative abundance of taxa predicted to be saprotrophic, alongside a decreased relative abundance of taxa inferred to be symbiotrophic. Soil pH and SOC emerged as the primary factors influencing fungal community structure. These findings highlight the critical role of CWD in shaping soil fungal communities and their inferred functional traits, underscore the influence of tree species identity on fungal assembly, and provide insights into stable carbon sequestration stability in subtropical forests.

Keywords: coarse wood debris, fungal community, Trophic modes, Tree species, Carbonsequestration

Received: 12 Dec 2024; Accepted: 04 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Ding, Chen, Xie, Bai, Chen and Pan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence:
Nan Wang, Jiyang College, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Zhuji, China
Xiaocheng Pan, Jiyang College, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Zhuji, China

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