3.7 Effects of environmental factors on endophyte abundance or richness
GLM was used to assess the effect of different environmental factors on endophyte abundance or richness at bacterial genus level or fungal species level. The results showed that richness of bacterial genus negatively correlated with pH and TN for the whole plant bacterial communities and positively correlated with roots (Table 2). The bacterial communities in roots showed the same trend with the whole plant bacterial communities, that the richness negatively correlated with pH and TN. The richness of fungal taxa for the whole plant fungal communities negatively correlated with roots. The fungal communities in roots positively correlated with TN and negatively correlated with OM. There was no significant correlation among bacterial or fungal diversity in aerial tissues and environmental factors.
The abundance of bacterial genera Cupriavidus andBrevibacterium positively correlated with P and OM in whole plant bacterial community (Table 3). The abundance of fungal taxaSaitozyma podzolica , Sporormiaceae FOTU_583, AporosporaFOTU_199, fungal genus Saitozyma and Neocamarosporium , and class Dothideomycetes positively correlated with roots. No fungal group showed significant correlation with abiotic environmental factors except Acremonium chrysogenum , which negatively correlated with medium radiation level.