Chiang Mai Journal of Science

     The rapid expansion of the agricultural field has had negative impacts on soil ecological functions. Soil fungi play an important role in nutrient cycling and the maintenance of soil functions in terrestrial ecosystems. However, our understanding of soil fungal communities and the interaction among microbial taxa in plant protected areas is still limited. This study applied high-throughput sequencing in an investigation of fungal communities and their diversity within the plant protected areas of Songkhla zoo in Southern Thailand. The sampling sites fell into three zones: zone I (dry evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest and agricultural field); zone II (evergreen forest and mixed deciduous forest); and zone III (evergreen forest, mixed deciduous forest and rubber tree crop). Soil samples were collected from each zone and subjected to physicochemical tests. Total DNA was extracted from soil samples, and we analyzed the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS1) region of the rDNA gene of the fungi by Illumina Miseq sequencing to assess the fungal communities. The soil parameters revealed that the total calcium (Ca), manganese (Mg) and potassium (K) in zone III were significantly higher than in the other zones. A total of 637, 702 and 745 OTUs were observed from zone I, zone II and zone III samples, respectively, with 143 OTUs common across all sampling sites. The fungal communities were significantly different between the sampling sites. Zone III had the highest levels of community richness and diversity, followed by zone II and zone I. The dominant genera in zones I, II and III were Beauveria, Staphylotrichum and Trichoderma, respectively. Furthermore, the high concentration of K, Ca and Mg affected the fungal communities and diversity in the plant protected areas in Songkhla zoo. Our findings provide insights into the importance of soil fungi, and this study identified key differences in the fungal communities in the plant protected areas in Songkhla zoo.