Identifying functional impacts of heat-resistant fungi on boreal forest recovery after wildfire

Open AccessFungi were isolated into pure culture from heat-treated soils that had burned the previous year. These were inoculated on to litter of paper birch and black spruce to assess decomposition (mass lost) under controlled conditions. Fungi were also inoculated on to roots of seedlings of paper birch, black spruce, and jack pine to assess impacts on biomass (grams after dried). Sanger sequences of cultured fungi were matched with that of sequences from high throughput amplicon sequencing (MiSeq Illumina) at 47 plots. In situ decomposition (mass lost) of black spruce and paper birch litter was assessed after 12 and 24 months from 5 litterbags 30 plots in the field 2-4 years after fire. Seedlings were counted in 3, 1 by 1 m quadrats per plot one year after fire at 47 plots.