Molecular analysis shows that soil fungi from ancient semi-natural woodland exist in sites converted to non-native conifer plantations

The restoration of microbial communities may be central to the re-establishment of plant-soil interactions and renovation of function in degraded woodland systems. However, there is currently little knowledge of the extent to which the soil microbial communities associated with past vegetation persist in such systems. This study used fungal-specific internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA environmental clone libraries to compare fungal communities in four ancient semi-natural woodland sites in the UK with adjacent non-native conifer plantations, and with adjacent grassland. In total, we recovered 190 distinct ITS sequence types (ITS types), of which the greatest diversity occurred in ancient semi-natural woodland. Although ancient semi-natural woodland and adjacent conifer plantations shared 27 ITS types, none were shared between woodland and grassland sites. A total of 16 ectomycorrhizal genera were subsequently identified using BLASTn searches, of which nine were recovered from both woodland types and none were shared between woodland and grassland sites. Only eight of these genera had previously been identified from sporophores during 50 years of surveying carried out at the same woodland sites. We conclude that fungal communities associated with ancient semi-natural woodland also exist on sites converted to non-native conifer plantations. In consequence, attempts to restore native, semi-natural woodland may have an increased chance of success when focussed on restoration of plantations, rather than the creation of new woodland on ex-agricultural land.