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Forests
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Diversity, Dynamics and Ecological Functions of Forest Soil Fungal Communities
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Diversity, Dynamics and Ecological Functions of Forest Soil Fungal Communities

A Special Issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907) belonging to the section "Forest Soil".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2026) | Viewed by 1508

Editors

Dr. Željko D. Savković

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski Trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: mycology; fungal diversity; fungal biology; fungal infection
Dr. Miloś Č. Stupar

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, Studentski Trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia
Interests: mycology; fungal diversity; fungal biology; fungal ecology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Forest soil fungal communities are pivotal in shaping ecosystem structure and functioning. This Special Issue explores the diversity of soil fungi—including saprotrophs, pathogens, endophytes, and mycorrhizal species—and their dynamics across spatial, temporal, and successional gradients. Emphasis is placed on how abiotic factors—such as soil pH, moisture, carbon and nutrient availability—as well as biotic factors—including flora and fauna composition—drive shifts in fungal community assembly and functional guild distribution. Functionally, soil fungi mediate biomass decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant productivity, while mycorrhizal fungi enhance nutrient uptake and influence carbon storage dynamics. The Special Issue also invites contributions that examine how forest disturbances (e.g., fire, logging, pests) and forest management practices alter fungal composition and roles—shifting balances among saprotrophic, symbiotic, and pathogenic guilds and impacting ecosystem processes. By integrating community ecology with ecosystem function, this collection aims to deepen understanding of forest resilience and inform conservation and restoration strategies in the face of global change.

Submitted manuscripts must be original contributions, not ones previously published or submitted to other journals. Papers published or submitted for publication in conference proceedings may be considered, provided that they are considerably extended and improved.

Dr. Željko D. Savković
Dr. Miloś Č. Stupar
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Forests is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • fungal diversity
  • fungal ecology
  • forest soil
  • mycology
  • mycorrhiza
  • pedology

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 12628 KB  
Article
Bioinformatics-Based Data Mining of GenBank and Diversity Patterns of Soil Fungal Sequences
by Željko Savković, Miloš Stupar, Andrija Finka, Slaven Zjalić and Jelena Lončar
Forests 2026, 17(7), 731; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17070731 - 24 Jun 2026
Viewed by 522
Abstract
Soil fungi are key drivers of terrestrial ecosystem functioning, contributing to organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant–microorganism interactions. Despite their importance, the global distribution and structural biases of public sequence records for soil fungi remain incompletely characterized. In this study, we analyzed [...] Read more.
Soil fungi are key drivers of terrestrial ecosystem functioning, contributing to organic matter decomposition, nutrient cycling, and plant–microorganism interactions. Despite their importance, the global distribution and structural biases of public sequence records for soil fungi remain incompletely characterized. In this study, we analyzed soil-associated fungal DNA sequences retrieved from the NCBI GenBank database using a custom R-based bioinformatics pipeline. Following filtering and metadata standardization, 544,554 filtered sequence records were obtained. The taxonomic composition of the dataset consisted primarily of Ascomycota (69.62%), followed by Basidiomycota, Glomeromycota, and Mucoromycota, with Trichoderma, Penicillium, and Aspergillus representing the most frequent genera. The geographic distribution revealed strong sampling bias, with China and the United States accounting for over one-third of all records. Ecological metadata indicated that rhizospheric and forest soils were the most common sources of the deposited sequences. At the same time, gene marker analyses confirmed the widespread use of the ITS region as the primary fungal barcode. Sequence diversity analyses revealed continental variation, with Europe and Asia showing higher medians, while the ordination highlighted clustering of sequence profiles, particularly among records from extreme environments. This study demonstrates the potential of public sequence databases for large-scale biodiversity assessments while highlighting the influence of sampling bias and the limitations of metadata. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity, Dynamics and Ecological Functions of Forest Soil Fungal Communities)
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28 pages, 12658 KB  
Article
Plant Roots Exert Stronger Co-Structuring Effects than Soils on the Litter Microbial Community Following the Succession of Fagus lucida Forests
by Xiaoyu Long, Xiangshi Kong, Xingbing He, Yonghui Lin, Zaihua He, Hong Lin, Jianjun Xiang and Siqi Shan
Forests 2026, 17(4), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/f17040476 - 13 Apr 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 498
Abstract
Clarifying the responses of microbial communities in distinct microhabitats like roots, the soil, and litter layers to secondary succession is critical for predicting the effects of global climate change on ecosystem functions. We investigated the microbial activities, compositions, and networks in these microhabitats [...] Read more.
Clarifying the responses of microbial communities in distinct microhabitats like roots, the soil, and litter layers to secondary succession is critical for predicting the effects of global climate change on ecosystem functions. We investigated the microbial activities, compositions, and networks in these microhabitats of Fagus lucida forests ranging from 40 to 200 years. The results showed that soil physicochemical properties decreased with forest succession, except for NH4+-N and available phosphorus, which decreased at the early stage. All vector angles of extracellular enzyme stoichiometry that were greater than 45° indicated that phosphorus was the key limiting element for microorganisms. The microbial community shifted from r- to K-strategists with forest succession, displaying the replacement of most bacterial phyla by Proteobacteria and Acidobacteriota, and an increase in the Acidobacteriota: Proteobacteria ratio, especially in the soil and litter layers. Soil properties, particularly NH4+-N and pH, significantly affected the bacterial diversity and structure. Moreover, the bacterial network complexity increased with succession, particularly in the litter layer, and the topological properties of bacterial networks showed a stronger influence on microbial activities compared with those of fungal networks. The richness of keystone taxa in the litter layer was higher than in the soil layer and roots. However, the fungal community dominated by symbiotrophs showed lower sensitivity to soil nutrient changes and greater resilience to forest succession, displaying stable diversity and decreased network complexity, particularly in the roots. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (e.g., Russula) dominated the fungal guilds, and their abundance increased with forest succession, accompanied by a decrease in pathogenic fungi. Plant roots with significantly higher phosphatase activities played a stronger role than soils in structuring the litter microbial community, as reflected by similar carbon- and nitrogen-acquiring enzyme activities, microbial compositions, a greater share of taxa, and closer community distance. Our results revealed the increasingly important role of plant roots with forest succession in structuring the microbial community and nutrient cycling in the soil and litter layers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Diversity, Dynamics and Ecological Functions of Forest Soil Fungal Communities)
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