Successional trend
Variables retained in the CCA (host identity, spatial distance between samples and light intensity) explained 11.76% of the variation of the actual endophyte community. In contrast, only between 4.27% - 4.75% of the variation in ASV composition of randomly generated communities could be explained by these same predictor variables. Therefore, the predictor variables predicted significantly (2.5 times) more variation in community composition of the true than the randomly generated communities (z-value = 56.812, p-value = <16x10-16). This indicates that communities are non-randomly assembled and that deterministic selective forces structure fungal endophyte communities.
The similarity of foliar fungal communities showed no consistent trends across the gradient of BC size (Table 1). The average Raup-Crick similarity decreased significantly with increasing BC area for endophyte communities of E. crispa (Figure 1 & Table 1), as expected under deterministic succession. However, no significant trends in community similarity with BC area could be observed for rare communities of the other two host species (Table 1). Similarly, the Morisita similarity index showed no host-specific successional trends across BC area (Table 1). Therefore, five of the six analyses showed no evidence of deterministic succession.