Effect of plant-related predictors and drought on sixteen grassland communities grown as monocultures

We explored the total and pathogenic fungi community of sixteen grassland species affiliated to two plant functional groups (grass and forb) grown as monocultures to assess which plant-related predictor, such as plant identity, plant functional group and host phylogeny was better in explaining the variation in fungal richness and community structure among the plants studied. Moreover, we investigated the response of the fungal community to drought. Briefly, the experiment consisted of plant communities comprised of the following plant species: the grasses Agrostis stolonifera, Anthoxanthum odoratum, Arrhenatherum elatius, Briza media, Festuca pratensis, Festuca rubra, Phleum pratense, Trisetum flavescens and forbs Achillea millefolium, Centaurea jacea, Galium mollugo, Leontodon hispidus, Leucanthemum vulgare, Prunella vulgaris, Ranunculus repens, and Sanguisorba officinalis. The plant species were grown in plot of 70 cm x 70 cm, with six replicates for each plant species, leading to a total of 96 plots. These plots were distributed in 3 blocks, which contained 2 plots (2 replicates) of each of the sixteen species per block. In the growing season of the fourth year (10 June -14 July 2017) a drought treatment was set up in half of the replicates using rainout shelters and supplementary watering of control plots.