Top‐down control of soil fungal community composition by a globally distributed keystone consumer

Abstract

The relative contribution of top‐down and bottom‐up processes regulating primary decomposers can influence the strength of the link between the soil animal community and ecosystem functioning. Although soil bacterial communities are regulated by bottom‐up and top‐down processes, the latter are considered to be less important in structuring the diversity and functioning of fungal‐dominated ecosystems. Despite the huge diversity of mycophagous (fungal‐feeding) soil fauna, and their potential to reverse the outcomes of competitive fungal interactions, top‐down grazing effects have never been found to translate to community‐level changes. We constructed soil mesocosms to investigate the potential of isopods grazing on cord‐forming basidiomycete fungi to influence the community composition and functioning of a complex woodland soil microbial community. Using metagenomic sequencing we provide conclusive evidence of direct top‐down control at the community scale in fungal‐dominated woodland soil. By suppressing the dominant cord‐forming basidiomycete fungi, isopods prevented the competitive exclusion of surrounding litter fungi, increasing diversity in a community containing several hundred fungal species. This isopod‐induced modification of community composition drove a shift in the soil enzyme profile, and led to a restructuring of the wider mycophagous invertebrate community. We highlight characteristics of different soil ecosystems that will give rise to such top‐down control. Given the ubiquity of isopods and basidiomycete fungi in temperate and boreal woodland ecosystems, such top‐down community control could be of widespread significance for global carbon and nutrient cycling.

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