Although elevation patterns of diversity for plants and animals are well known, understanding of variations in fungal community structure along elevation gradients is limited. Soil fungi play an important role in soil microbial communities, where they improve soil organic matter (SOM) turnover and nutrient circulation. Hence, any change in fungal community structure will have strong effects on soil and ecosystem functioning. The main purpose of this thesis is therefore to investigate how climate induced shifts in ...

Two-third of the terrestrial C is stored in soils, and more than 50% of soil organic C (SOC) is stored in subsoils from 30 – 100 cm. Hence, subsoil is important as a source or sink for CO2 in the global carbon cycle. Especially the stable organic carbon (OC) is stored in subsoil, as several studies have shown that subsoil OC is of a higher average age than topsoil OC. However, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the mechanisms of C sequestration and C turnover in subsoil. Three main factors are discussed, ...