Response of Antarctic soil fungal assemblages to experimental warming and reduction of UV radiation.

Abstract This paper reports the effects of nutrient availability, UV radiation and temperature on the taxa composition and abundance of Antarctic soil mycobiota. Two sites at Edmonson Point were studied: the first was poor in nutrients, near the glacier, and the second was close to bird nesting sites. The highest abundance of soil fungi was recorded at the site adjacent to the bird nesting sites. Phoma herbarum was the most abundant taxon. Lecytophora lignicola and Ascotricha erinacea are new records for continental Antarctica. The fungal assemblage from the nutrient-deficient site was characterized by a dominance-diversity curve approaching the broken-stick model, the assemblage from the soil influenced by birds was characterized by a lognormal distribution. Plastic cloches were used in experiments designed to assess differences in fungal assemblages subjected to altered temperature and/or UV exposure. Dominance-diversity curves and diversity values of soil fungal mycobiota were compared in their natural condition as compared with manipulated conditions. Under the walled cloches, at both sites, artificial warming led to stress on Antarctic soil fungal assemblages. In contrast, UV protection led to a higher equilibrium in the assemblage structure. On the basis of the results obtained, it could be proposed that UV radiation is the most important limiting ecological factor for soil mycobiota in continental Antarctica.