Fungal community diversity in soils under pedunculate oak Quercus robur L. and European beech Fagus sylvatica L. saplings produced with different technologies

Fungi constitute a vital element of forest biological diversity. A deeper understanding of their role in the forest crops can impact the modification of forest management. Hence the need to understand the role of fungal in community of forest crops better. The aim of this study was to investigate fungal communities associated with soil under asymp- tomatic and dead two-year-old saplings of Quercus robur and Fagus sylvatica that were produced as bare-root and containerized seedlings.The fungal communities in soil were analysed by next-generation sequencing (Illumina SBS technology) of internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region.In all the samples, a total of 1293 taxa were identified (including 1137 fungi taxa) and a total of 63,321 sequences were obtained. The relative abundance of Ascomycota (58.08%) was the highest, followed by, Basidiomycota (16.79%), Glomeromycota (0.17%), Mucoromycota (0.1%), and Oomycota (0.06%). Fungi dominated in the community associated with asymptomatic saplings, while saprotrophs dominated in the soil of dead saplings. Fungal biodiversity was associated with tree species. No differences were observed between the pathogen fungi frequency in the fungal community of dead and living trees. Fusarium oxysporum was statistically significantly (p=0.019) associated with the containerized seedling group. The results showed that the fungal community of the soil samples under saplings from containerised production were more diverse than the ones produced in the traditional technology, hence it is advisable to use the planting stock with container-grown seedlings.