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Background: Soil degradation in intensive tea plantations necessitates sustainable management. Straw application (S) is a promising practice, yet its integrated effects on soil fungal communities in acidic tea soils require comprehensive evaluation. Methods: High-throughput sequencing based on the primers of fungal ITS1F-ITS2 was conducted on soils from tea plantations with/without straw application (S and CK, respectively). Analyses encompassed community structure, α- and β-diversity, differential taxa, co-occurrence networks, the main drivers by soil properties, and functional prediction. Results: The core fungal community structure except for Basidiomycota, and diversity remained stable under S. However, 17 ASVs responded as significant biomarkers, including fine-scale shifts within the genus Sebacina. S modified the complexity of the fungal co-occurrence network with enhancing its modularity and integration and increasing keystone connectors, while overall network cohesion was maintained. Soil available phosphorus (AP), soil organic matter (SOM) and nitrate nitrogen (NO3−-N) were the dominant drivers of fungal amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), with water content (WC) the main driver of fungal keystones. Functionally, S selectively affects the richness of Symbiotrophs (including endophytes) without altering the relative abundance structure of major trophic guilds. Conclusions: S acts as a modulator, refining fungal network architecture and interactions within the resilience threshold of the community, offering a viable practice for sustainable tea soil management.
Cui et al. (Thu,) studied this question.