Effects of shining pondweed (Potamogeton lucens) on fungal communities in water and rhizosphere sediments in Nansi Lake, China

Submerged macrophytes play an important role in structuring biological communities. Aquatic fungi are an important component of aquatic ecosystems. However, little is known about the effects of submerged macrophytes on fungal communities. In this study, we take an integrative approach to ascertain the influence of Potamogeton lucens L. on the structure, and function of the fungal communities from different areas (with/without P. lucens L.) of two sample types (water/sediment) using Illumina MiSeq metabarcoding and qPCR. Fungal alpha diversity in area cultivated with P. lucens L. was higher than in those without P. lucens L., but the opposite trend was found in the sediment samples. The copy number of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region in the sediment samples was higher in area with than without P. lucens L. We found 15 and 3 significantly different genera in the sediment and water samples, respectively. At the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) level, the fungal communities were found to be clustered according to area (with/without P. lucens L) and source (water/sediment). Total phosphorus, alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, and NO 2 − contents influenced the fungal community in the PL water samples. It was positively correlated with alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen, content in the P. lucens L sediments samples. For the water samples, plant pathogens were significantly higher in P. lucens L area, while wood saprotrophs, plant pathogenic on pollen, fungal parasites, dung saprotroph, and animal pathogens were significantly higher in P. lucens L area. Our study confirmed that submerged macrophytes changed the fungal community composition in both sediment and water, demonstrating that submerged macrophytes affect the transportation and cycling of nutrients related to fungi in lake ecosystems.