In 2016, Julia Kyaschenko and her team were interested in how the fungal community changes from clear-cutting, to forest establishment and development, all the way to forest maturity. Throughout Scandinavia and, well almost everywhere, forested areas are managed into even-age stands. Only in unperturbed, old-growth forests that were never logged do we see diverse assemblages of trees of various ages. For this reason, the 10 sites of various aged Pinus sylvestris stands are perfect for a chronosequence study, since a wide variation in tree diversity would bring convoluted species interactions. This study showed noteworthy trends which help paint a pretty ecological picture from underneath the forest floor.

In the boreal Scandinavian ecosystems studied here, the soil is made up by two distinct layers. The top layer called the litter layer, is made up of fresh organic material that recently fell off of the trees above. Saprobic fungi heavily inhabit these areas of the soil horizon, because this is where most of their nutrient resources reside. The lower, more decomposed humus layer is dominated by biotrophic mycorrhizal fungi that receive carbohydrates from their plant hosts. Although mycorrhizal fungi have a reduced ability to enzymatically break down organic material compared to their decomposer counterpart, many of these fungi use the energy given by their tree host to mobilize complex organic matter riddled throughout the humus layer. This process is increasingly important when soil nutrients become limited in older forest stands.