In a study published in Integrative Conservation, researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) uncovered strikingly different patterns in the diversity of fungi living on the leaves (phyllosphere) of flowering plants (angiosperms) compared to non-flowering plants like conifers (gymnosperms) as elevation increases.
The study, conducted along the steep slopes of Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve (2900-4100 meters), highlights the fundamental role of plant evolutionary history and specific leaf characteristics in shaping these vital microbial communities and offers new insights for conserving fragile mountain ecosystems.
While leaf traits are known to influence the microbes living on plant surfaces, how this plays out across different plant lineages and environmental gradients like elevation has remained unclear.
The researchers investigated the variation patterns of fungal alpha diversity, beta diversity, community assembly processes, and symbiotic networks on the leaves of angiosperms and gymnosperms along different altitudinal gradients (2900-4100 m). By analyzing leaf functional traits and environmental factors, their effects on fungal diversity, community assembly, and network stability were evaluated.
Alpha diversity of phyllosphere fungi exhibited a cosine wave pattern with peak values at intermediate elevations in angiosperms, while it declined consistently with elevation gain in gymnosperms. The angiosperms were more sensitive to environmental gradients, showing significant structural variations. Deterministic processes dominated community assembly at high elevations, whereas stochastic processes prevailed from low to intermediate elevations.
Critical leaf traits (e.g. specific leaf area, vein angle and roughness) of angiosperms were closely associated with fungal alpha diversity, while such associations of gymnosperms with these traits were weak.
The symbiotic network of angiosperms showed dynamic changes across the elevational gradient with the highest network interactions at intermediate elevations, while that of gymnosperms declined steadily towards higher elevations.
These findings provide a basis for integrating plant functional traits and microbial interactions into conservation strategies that prioritize core fungal taxa, rare angiosperms at high elevations and vulnerable alpine ecosystems to enhance the protection of specific functional groups and ecosystem resilience.
Contact
LU Huazheng Ph.D
Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, the Chinese Academy of Sciences
E-mail: luhuazheng@xtbg.ac.cn
Published: 05 August 2025
