Diversity of fungal communities in the rhizosphere soil of Tamarix chinensis in saline–alkaline wetland

The microorganisms in saline–alkaline wetlands have the ability to adapt to high salt environments. Studying their physiological characteristics and survival strategies are of great significance for understanding microbial existence in extreme environments and developing and utilizing salt-alkali-adapted microbial resources. In this study, we focused on the rhizosphere soil of Tamarix chinensis and investigated the differences in fungal community structure and diversity in different seasons and habitats within the saline–alkaline wetland. Through high-throughput sequencing analysis, we found that the phyla Ascomycota and Basidiomycota were the predominant taxa in the fungal community of this saline–alkaline wetland, with Fusarium and Alternaria being the dominant genera. We also observed that the diversity and abundance of soil fungal communities were significantly influenced by seasonal and humidity changes. Different dominant fungal genera were observed in different seasons and environments, such as Talaromyces in spring and Emericellopsis in autumn. However, compared to seasonal variations, changes in wet-dry environments had a more pronounced impact on the diversity of the fungal community in the rhizosphere soil of Tamarix chinensis. Furthermore, we found that fungal genera exhibited preferences for different physicochemical factors in wet and dry environments. For example, Fusarium showed a significant positive correlation with organic nitrogen (AN) in dry environments (P