Fungal diversity and its mechanism of community shaping in the milieu of sanitary landfill

Abstract

• Ascomycota was the predominant phylum in sanitary landfill fungal communities.

• Saprophytic fungi may be of special importance in landfill ecology.

• Both richness and diversity of fungal community were lower in leachate than refuse.

• Physical habitat partly contributed to the geographic variance of fungal community.

• NO₃⁻ was considered the most significant abiotic factor shaping fungal community.

Land filling is the main method to dispose municipal solid waste in China. During the decomposition of organic waste in landfills, fungi play an important role in organic carbon degradation and nitrogen cycling. However, fungal composition and potential functions in landfill have not yet been characterized. In this study, refuse and leachate samples with different areas and depths were taken from a large sanitary landfill in Beijing to identify fungal communities in landfills. In high-throughput sequencing of ITS region, 474 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were obtained from landfill samples with a cutoff level of 3% and a sequencing depth of 19962. The results indicates that Ascomycota, with the average relative abundance of 84.9%, was the predominant phylum in landfill fungal communities. At the genus level, Family Hypocreaceae unclassified (15.7%), Fusarium (9.9%) and Aspergillus (8.3%) were the most abundant fungi found in the landfill and most of them are of saprotrophic lifestyle, which plays a big role in nutrient cycling in ecosystem. Fungi existed both in landfilled refuse and leachate while both the richness and evenness of fungal communities were higher in the former. In addition, fungal communities in landfilled refuse presented geographic variances, which could be partly attributed to physical habitat properties (pH, dissolved organic carbon, volatile solid, NH₄⁺, NO₂⁻ and NO₃⁻), while NO₃⁻ was considered the most significant factor (p<0.05) in shaping fungal community.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Sanitary landfill / Fungal community / Diversity / Saprotroph / Physical habitat / Environmental factor

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