Tedersoo, L. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2018

Human-induced decrease of ectomycorrhizal vegetation led to loss in global soil carbon content

Vegetation impacts on ecosystem functioning are mediated by mycorrhiza, a plant-fungal association formed by most plant species. Ecosystems dominated by distinct mycorrhizal types differ strongly in their biogeochemistry. Quantitative analyses of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning are hindered by the absence of information on mycorrhizal distribution. We present the first global high-resolution maps of vegetation biomass distribution among main types of mycorrhizal associations. Arbuscular, ecto-, ericoid and non-mycorrhizal vegetation store 241{+/-}15, 100{+/-}17, 7{+/-}1.8 and 29 {+/-} 5.5 GT carbon in aboveground biomass, respectively. Soil carbon stocks in both topsoil and subsoil are positively related to the biomass fraction of ectomycorrhizal plants in the community, though the strength of this relationship varies across biomes. We show that human-induced transformations of Earths ecosystems have reduced ectomycorrhizal vegetation, with potential knock-on effects on terrestrial carbon stocks. Our work provides a benchmark for spatially explicit global quantitative assessments of mycorrhizal impacts on ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycles.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryFirst maps of the global distribution of mycorrhizal plants reveal global losses of ectomycorrhizal vegetation, and quantitative links between mycorrhizal vegetation patterns and terrestrial carbon stocks.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Proposal for practical multi-kingdom classification of eukaryotes based on monophyly and comparable divergence time criteria

Much of the ecological, taxonomic and biodiversity research relies on understanding of phylogenetic relationships among organisms. There are multiple available classification systems that all suffer from differences in naming, incompleteness, presence of multiple non-monophyletic entities and poor correspondence of divergence times. These issues render taxonomic comparisons across the main groups of eukaryotes and all life in general difficult at best. By using the monophyly criterion, roughly comparable time of divergence and information from multiple phylogenetic reconstructions, I propose an alternative classification system for the domain Eukarya to improve hierarchical taxonomical comparability for animals, plants, fungi and multiple protist groups. Following this rationale, I propose 32 kingdoms of eukaryotes that are treated in 10 subdomains. These kingdoms are further separated into 43, 115, 140 and 353 taxa at the level of subkingdom, phylum, subphylum and class, respectively (http://dx.doi.org/10.15156/BIO/587483). Most of the names have been used previously or these were deduced from those of the type taxa to be able to unambiguously link genera to higher taxonomic levels. In the era of phylogenomics, understanding about the phylogenetic relationships among organisms is rapidly increasing. Classifications systems must keep pace with this race to serve the research community by consistent improvements in precision in terms of taxonomic resolution and maintaining monophyly of the ingredient taxa.

evolutionary biology↗