where pH was lower. We infer that these soil conditions were more favorable to
mesofauna. Peaks of ectomycorrhizal fungal abundance were detected in mesofauna
and sclerotia samples as well as in soil, and we observed a decrease in the relative
abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi in mesofauna. We infer that both the lower soil
pH and grazing by mesofauna played a role in stimulating sclerotia formation.
For the second model, we used density of sclerotia to describe sclerotia abundance, and the Shannon–Wiener diversity index (H
0 ) of ectomycorrhizal fungal
communities obtained from mesofauna to indicate fungivory by mesofauna. From
Fig. 3.17 Abundance of ectomycorrhizal fungi in Acari, Collembola, soil, and sclerotia samples
collected from the study sites (Amasya 2015)
Fig. 3.18 Relationship between soil pH(KCl) and exchangeable aluminum content (AlEx) at the
four study sites; Iwaki, Nagano, Akita, and Chokai. Left: Soil including sclerotia grain, Right:
Sclerotia grain free soil. Sample size of each item is referred in Table 3.3
3 Relationships Between Soil Mesofauna, Ectomycorrhizal Fungi, and Sclerotia in. . .
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