Fungi associated with decomposing deadwood in a natural beech-dominated forest

Deadwood represents a specific habitat of particular importance in natural, unmanaged forests where wood is not harvested. Here, we characterized the basic wood chemistry, enzyme activity, fungal biomass content and community composition of Fagus sylvatica, Abies alba and Picea abies coarse woody de...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fungal ecology 2016-10, Vol.23, p.109-122
Main Authors: Baldrian, Petr, Zrůstová, Petra, Tláskal, Vojtěch, Davidová, Anna, Merhautová, Věra, Vrška, Tomáš
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abies alba
Brown-rot
coarse woody debris
Community assembly
community structure
Deadwood
Decomposition
enzyme activity
Extracellular enzymes
Fagus sylvatica
fungal communities
fungi
habitats
microbial biomass
Mixed natural forest
nitrogen content
Picea abies
Succession
temperate forests
White-rot
wood
wood chemistry
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Summary:Deadwood represents a specific habitat of particular importance in natural, unmanaged forests where wood is not harvested. Here, we characterized the basic wood chemistry, enzyme activity, fungal biomass content and community composition of Fagus sylvatica, Abies alba and Picea abies coarse woody debris decomposing for  38 years in a natural temperate forest. The results indicate that coarse deadwood represents a highly diverse substratum in terms of the quality, fungal biomass content and, in particular, the composition of fungal communities whose properties change with time. Because sequences recovered from individual logs were typically dominated by one or few fungal species, which were rarely tree species-specific, the community assembly appeared to show a high level of stochasticity. Among the estimated variables, nitrogen content that increased with decay length was the most important candidate driver of fungal biomass content, community composition and enzyme activity. [Display omitted] •Deadwood is a highly chemically heterogeneous substrate harboring diverse community of fungi.•Individual logs are typically dominated by sequences of one or few fungal species.•The assembly of fungal communities in deadwood seems to be largely stochastic.•Nitrogen content in deadwood increases with decay length.•Nitrogen content affects fungal biomass content, community composition and enzyme activity.
ISSN:1754-5048
DOI:10.1016/j.funeco.2016.07.001