DOI: 10.5061/dryad.7m0cfxq22
title: Data for: Assessing above and belowground recovery from ammonium sulphate addition and wildfire in a lowland heath: mycorrhizal fungi as potential indicators.

description: Atmospheric pollution containing soil-nitrifying ammonium sulphate
 ((NH4)2SO4) affects semi-natural ecosystems worldwide. Long-term additions
 of (NH4)2SO4 to nitrogen(N)-limited habitats, including heathlands,
 increase climate stress affecting recovery from wildfires. Although
 heathland vegetation largely depends on ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ErM) to
 access soil N, we lack a detailed understanding of how prolonged exposure
 to (NH4)2SO4 may alter ErM community composition and host plants’ reliance
 on fungal partners following wildfire and affect recovery. Simulation of
 atmospheric pollution ((NH4)2SO4) occurred bi-weekly for 5 years after a
 2006 wildfire in a UK heathland. Ten years after treatments ceased, we
 measured vegetation structure, lichen and lichen photobiont composition,
 soil characteristics, ErM colonisation, ErM diversity in roots and soil,
 and assessed ErM potential as novel recovery indicators. Heather height
 and density, and moss groundcover, were greater in
 N-enriched plots. Lichen community indices showed significant treatment
 effects but without differences in photobionts. Soil pH and Mg were
 significantly lower in treated plots while soil cation exchange capacity
 was significantly higher. There were no detectable differences in ErM
 composition and keystone ErM taxa between control and treated plots. Soil
 carbon stock measures were variable. Our results indicate atmospheric
 pollution following fire can have significant lingering effects above- and
 belowground. ErM diversity and root colonization were not assessed in the
 original N-addition experiment; we advocate for their inclusion in future
 studies as an integral part of the recovery assessment toolkit. We show
 that mycorrhizal fungi diversity is a viable ecological tool and summarise
 key steps for ErM identification.
description: Total soil DNA was extracted in duplicates from 0.25 g of soil
 from each plot (two extractions per plot, n = 24, DNeasy PowerSoil Kit).
 The DNA extractions were processed by Macrogen (Seoul, South Korea) for
 library preparation and Illumina sequencing with the primer set ITS86F and
 ITS4 (White et al. 1990; Turenne et al. 1999) targeting the ITS2
 region.
description: # Data for: Assessing above and belowground recovery from ammonium
 sulphate addition and wildfire in a lowland heath: mycorrhizal fungi as
 potential indicators The
 dataset contains raw ITS2 reads obtained within the study "Assessing
 above and belowground recovery from ammonium sulphate addition and
 wildfire in a lowland heath: mycorrhizal fungi as potential
 indicators". The dataset was produced to assess the composition of
 soil fungal communities in a dry heathland ten years after cessation of
 ammonium sulphate treatments. ## Description of the data and file
 structure Reads in this dataset are raw ITS2 obtained with the primer pair
 ITS86F and ITS4 and sequenced with Illumina technology. ## Sharing/Access
 information This is a section for linking to other ways to access the
 data, and for linking to sources the data is derived from, if any. Links
 to other publicly accessible locations of the data: * DOI of the article
 once published in Restoration Ecology will be made available. Data was
 derived from the following sources: * original data produced during the
 study mentioned in the titleataset are raw ITS2 sequences obtained using
 the primer pair ITS86F and ITS4 and sequenced with Illumina technology.