Ecosystem

Soil water

Topsoil

Biology

Decomposer

Nutrient

Nutrient cycle

Geography

Soil organic matter

Ecology

Botany

Forestry

Soil carbon

Organic matter

Cycling

Carbon cycle

Taiga

Ecology Letters

Boreal forest soils are important global carbon sinks, with significant storage in the organic topsoil. Decomposition of these stocks requires oxidative enzymes, uniquely produced by fungi. Across Swedish boreal forests, we found that local carbon storage in the organic topsoil was 33% lower in the presence of a group of closely related species of ectomycorrhizal fungi – Cortinarius acutus s.l.. This observation challenges the prevailing view that ectomycorrhizal fungi generally act to increase carbon storage in soils but supports the idea that certain ectomycorrhizal fungi can complement free‐living decomposers, maintaining organic matter turnover, nutrient cycling and tree productivity under nutrient‐poor conditions. The indication that a narrow group of fungi may exert a major influence on carbon cycling questions the prevailing dogma of functional redundancy among microbial decomposers. Cortinarius acutus s.l. responds negatively to stand‐replacing disturbance, and associated population declines are likely to increase soil carbon sequestration while impeding long‐term nutrient cycling.

A group of ectomycorrhizal fungi restricts organic matter accumulation in boreal forest