Temporal dynamics of soil fungi in a pyrodiverse dry‐sclerophyll forest

Fire is a major evolutionary and ecological driver that shapes biodiversity in forests. While above‐ground community responses to fire have been well‐documented, those below‐ground are much less understood. However, below‐ground communities, including fungi, play key roles in forests and facilitate the recovery of other organisms after fire. Here, we used internal transcribed spacer (ITS) meta‐barcoding data from forests with three different times since fire [short (3 years), medium (13–19 years) and long (>26 years)] to characterize the temporal responses of soil fungal communities across functional groups, ectomycorrhizal exploration strategies and inter‐guild associations. Our findings indicate that fire effects on fungal communities are strongest in the short to medium term, with clear distinctions between communities in forests with a short time (3 years) since fire, a medium time (13–19 years) and a long time (>26 years) since fire. Ectomycorrhizal fungi were disproportionately impacted by fire relative to saprotrophs, but the direction of the response varied depending on morphological structures and exploration strategies. For instance, short‐distance ectomycorrhizal fungi increased with recent fire, while medium‐distance (fringe) ectomycorrhizal fungi decreased. Further, we detected strong, negative inter‐guild associations between ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic fungi but only at medium and long times since fire. Given the functional significance of fungi, the temporal changes in fungal composition, inter‐guild associations and functional groups after fire demonstrated in our study may have functional implications that require adaptive management to curtail.