Spatial structure of fungal DNA assemblages revealed with eDNA metabarcoding in a forest river network in western Japan

Abstract Growing evidence has revealed high diversity and spatial heterogeneity of fungal communities including in local habitats in terrestrial ecosystems. These findings highlight the considerable sampling effort, analysis time, and costs required for the investigation of fungal diversity over large spatial scales. Recently, the analysis of environmental DNA in river water has been undertaken to study the biodiversity of organisms, such as animals and plants, in both aquatic and terrestrial habitats. However, previous studies have not investigated the spatial structure of fungal DNA assemblages in river water. In the present study, we investigate fungal DNA assemblages and their spatial structure using environmental DNA metabarcoding in water across different branches of river over forest landscapes. The river water was found to contain both phylogenetically and functionally diverse fungal DNA, including aquatic and terrestrial fungi, such as plant decomposers and mycorrhizal fungi. These fungal DNA assemblages were more similar within, rather than between, branches. In addition, the assemblages were more similar between spatially closer branches. These results imply that information on the terrestrial and aquatic fungal compositions of watersheds, and therefore their spatial structure can be obtained by investigating the fungal DNA assemblages in river water.