Conversion from natural wetlands to forestland and farmland alters the composition of soil fungal communities in Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China

ABSTRACTTo understand the effect of human activities on fungal communities in wetland, forestland and farmland soils, in this study, we investigated the relationship between the composition of soil fungal communities and their perturbations in wetland in northeast China. The results showed that a total of 132 OTUs were identified from all three site types combined, while 72 were exclusively shared between farmland and pristine wetland, 60 between forestland and pristine wetland, and 305 between farmland and forestland. All sites also hosted unique fungal OTUs, with 397 OTUs unique to farmland, 388 unique to pristine wetland and 463 unique to forestland. The obtained sequences were affiliated to nine different phyla throughout the dataset. Sequence abundance showed that Ascomycota members were more frequently identified than Basidiomycota, in all soil samples. The dominant phyla were specific for habitat type with Ascomycota for wetland, Ascomycota and Zygomycota for farmland, and Ascomycota and Basidiomyc...