Soil freeze-thaw cycles and qualitative change in fungal community

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Ongoing global warming is expected to increase the recurrence of soil freeze-thaw cycles (FTC) in cool-temperate and other high-latitude regions due to decreases in snow cover and increased variability of air temperature in winter. FTC currently occur in more than half of the land surface of the northern hemisphere, therefore it is important to explore the ecological implications of their altered regimes due to climate change. Knowledge of FTC effects on fungal communities is scarce, although their importance as mycorrhizal symbionts as well as pathogens for plants is evident. Strong changes in productivity and competition of plant communities after FTC may potentially be triggered by changes in the functional composition of the fungal community. Within this project, we want to analyze the effects of intensified FTC in winter on the qualitative composition of fungal communities associated with the plants. We use existing samples from the EVENT-experiment and apply for financing of an ITS-sequence analysis.