Stav Livne-Luzon ^_ Department of Plant & Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, 76100, Rehovot, Israel.
Hagai Shemesh ^_ Department of Environmental Sciences, Tel-Hai College, 1220800, Kiryat Shmona, Israel.
Yagil Osem  ^_ Institute of Plant Sciences, Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, Israel.
Yohay Carmel  ^_ Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Hen Migael  ^_ Department of Environmental Sciences, Tel-Hai College, 1220800, Kiryat Shmona, Israel.
Yael Avidan  ^_ Department of Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, The Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Sede Boqer Campus, 84990, Mitrani, Israel.
Anat Tsafrir _ Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105, Beer Sheva, Israel.
Sydney I Glassman  ^_ Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, UC Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA.
Thomas D Bruns  ^_ Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3102, USA.
Ofer Ovadia  ^_ Department of Life Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, 84105, Beer Sheva, Israel.

Fire effects on ecosystems range from destruction of aboveground vegetation to direct and indirect effects on belowground microorganisms. Although variation in such effects is expected to be related to fire severity, another potentially important and poorly understood factor is the effect of fire seasonality on soil microorganisms. We carried out a large-scale field experiment examining the effects of spring (early-dry season) versus autumn (late-dry- season) burns on the community composition of soil fungi in a typical Mediterranean woodland. Although the intensity and severity of our prescribed burns were largely consistent between the two burning seasons, we detected differential fire season effects on the composition of the soil fungal community, driven by changes in the saprotrophic fungal guild. The community composition of ectomycorrhizal fungi, assayed both in pine seedling bioassays and from soil sequencing, appeared to be resilient to the variation inflicted by seasonal fires. Since changes in the soil saprotrophic fungal community can directly influence carbon emission and decomposition rates, we suggest that regardless of their intensity and severity, seasonal fires may cause changes in ecosystem functioning.