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Article

Road Density Shapes Soil Fungal Community Composition in Urban Road Green Space

1
State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 211135, China
2
Shanghai Wildlife and Protected Natural Areas Research Center, Shanghai 202162, China
3
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
4
Shanghai Academy of Landscape Architecture Science and Planning, Shanghai 200232, China
5
College of Chemical Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Diversity 2025, 17(8), 539; https://doi.org/10.3390/d17080539 (registering DOI)
Submission received: 11 July 2025 / Revised: 29 July 2025 / Accepted: 29 July 2025 / Published: 31 July 2025
(This article belongs to the Section Microbial Diversity and Culture Collections)

Abstract

Road density is a key indicator of human activity, causing habitat loss and fragmentation. Soil fungi, essential for ecosystem functioning, are sensitive bioindicators. Yet their responses to road density in urban green spaces are poorly characterized. Here, we analyzed the composition of the dominant fungal community, examined both the direct and indirect effects of road density on soil fungal communities, and identified specialist species. Focusing on Shanghai, China, a rapidly urbanizing city, we considered both edaphic factor and the road network. Through machine learning and Spearman correlation regression analyses, we quantified the relative importance of road density and edaphic factor in shaping fungal community composition and employed occupancy-specificity modeling to identify specialist taxa. Our results revealed that Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Zygomycota, Rozellomycota, Chytridiomycota, and Glomeromycota were the dominant phyla, accounting for 93% of the retrieved ITS sequences. Road density was found to be the primary driver of fungal community composition, followed by soil lead and potassium concentrations. Notably, opportunistic pathogens (Acremonium spp.) correlated positively with road density (p < 0.001). Specialist species in high-density areas were primarily pathotrophic fungi, while saprotrophic fungi dominated in low-density areas. These findings highlight the need for urban planning strategies to mitigate the ecological impact of road density.
Keywords: road network; soil pathotrophic fungi; specialist species; urban soil road network; soil pathotrophic fungi; specialist species; urban soil

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MDPI and ACS Style

Luo, S.; Lin, Y.; Chen, R.; Han, J.; Liu, Y. Road Density Shapes Soil Fungal Community Composition in Urban Road Green Space. Diversity 2025, 17, 539. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17080539

AMA Style

Luo S, Lin Y, Chen R, Han J, Liu Y. Road Density Shapes Soil Fungal Community Composition in Urban Road Green Space. Diversity. 2025; 17(8):539. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17080539

Chicago/Turabian Style

Luo, Shuhong, Yong Lin, Ruirui Chen, Jigang Han, and Yun Liu. 2025. "Road Density Shapes Soil Fungal Community Composition in Urban Road Green Space" Diversity 17, no. 8: 539. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17080539

APA Style

Luo, S., Lin, Y., Chen, R., Han, J., & Liu, Y. (2025). Road Density Shapes Soil Fungal Community Composition in Urban Road Green Space. Diversity, 17(8), 539. https://doi.org/10.3390/d17080539

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