Percorrer por autor "Peeters, Gerrit"
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- Soil organic matter rather than ectomycorrhizal diversity is related to urban tree healthPublication . Geel, Maarten Van; Yu, Kang; Peeters, Gerrit; van Acker, Kasper; Ramos, Miguel; Serafim, Cindy; Kastendeuch, Pierre; Najjar, Georges; Ameglio, Thierry; Ngao, Jérôme; Saudreau, Marc; Castro, Paula; Somers, Ben; Honnay, OlivierUrban trees provide many ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, air quality improvement, storm water attenuation and energy conservation, to people living in cities. Provisioning of ecosystem services by urban trees, however, may be jeopardized by the typically poor quality of the soils in urban areas. Given their well-known multifunctional role in forest ecosystems, ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcM) may also contribute to urban tree health and thus ecosystem service provisioning. Yet, no studies so far have directly related in situ EcM community composition to urban tree health indicators. Here, two previously collected datasets were combined: i) tree health data of 175 Tilia tomentosa trees from three European cities (Leuven, Strasbourg and Porto) estimated using a range of reflectance, chlorophyll fluorescence and physical leaf indicators, and ii) ectomycorrhizal diversity of these trees as characterized by next-generation sequencing. Tree health indicators were related to soil characteristics and EcM diversity using canonical redundancy analysis. Soil organic matter significantly explained variation in tree health indicators whereas no significant relation between mycorrhizal diversity variables and the tree health indicators was found. We conclude that mainly soil organic matter, through promoting soil aggregate formation and porosity, and thus indirectly tree water availability, positively affects the health of trees in urban areas. Our results suggest that urban planners should not overlook the importance of soil quality and its water holding capacity for the health of urban trees and potentially also for the ecosystem services they deliver. Further research should also study other soil microbiota which may independently, or in interaction with ectomycorrhiza, mediate tree performance in urban settings.
- Variation in ectomycorrhizal fungal communities associated with Silver linden (Tilia tomentosa) within and across urban areasPublication . Geel, Maarten Van; Yu, Kang; Ceulemans, Tobias; Peeters, Gerrit; Acker, Kasper van; Geerts, Willem; Ramos, Miguel M.; Serafim, Cindy; Kastendeuch, Pierre; Najjar, Georges; Ameglio, Thierry; Ngao, Jérôme; Saudreau, Marc; Waud, Michael; Lievens, Bart; Castro, Paula M.L.; Somers, Ben; Honnay, OlivierTrees in urban areas face harsh environmental conditions. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcM) form a symbiosis with many tree species and provide a range of benefits to their host through their extraradical hyphal network. Although our understanding of the environmental drivers and large scale geographical variation of EcM communities in natural ecosystems is growing, our knowledge of EcM communities within and across urban areas is still limited. Here, we characterized EcM communities using Illumina miseq sequencing on 175 root samples of the urban tree Tilia tomentosa from three European cities, namely Leuven (Belgium), Strasbourg (France) and Porto (Portugal). We found strong differences in EcM richness and community composition between cities. Soil acidity, organic matter and moisture content were significantly associated with EcM community composition. In agreement, the explained variability in EcM communities was mostly attributed to general soil characteristics, whereas very little variation was explained by city and heavy metal pollution. Overall, our results suggest that EcM communities in urban areas are significantly associated with soil characteristics, while heavy metal pollution and biogeography had little or no impact. These findings deliver new insights into EcM distribution patterns in urban areas and contribute to specific inoculation strategies to improve urban tree vitality.