Macrofungal diversity and ecology in four Irish forest types

The macrofungal communities of Irish native tree species (ash and oak) and exotic tree species (Scots pine and Sitka spruce) forests were examined through the collection of sporocarps over 3 yr. Sampling of 27 plots revealed 186 species of macrofungi, including 10 species new to Ireland. The species...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Fungal ecology 2012-10, Vol.5 (5), p.499-508
Main Authors: O’Hanlon, Richard, Harrington, Thomas J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ash
Community
coniferous forests
Cortinarius
Forests
fungi
Host specificity
Indicator species
Inoculum
Multidimensional scaling
new species
Oak
Picea sitchensis
Pinus sylvestris
Sampling
Scots pine
Sitka spruce
species diversity
Species richness
sporocarps
Trees
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The macrofungal communities of Irish native tree species (ash and oak) and exotic tree species (Scots pine and Sitka spruce) forests were examined through the collection of sporocarps over 3 yr. Sampling of 27 plots revealed 186 species of macrofungi, including 10 species new to Ireland. The species richness of non-native Sitka spruce and Scots pine forests was similar to that of native oak forests. However, specific communities of macrofungi existed in each of the forest types as confirmed by non-metric multidimensional scaling and multi-response permutation procedure. Indicator species analysis was used to identify macrofungi which are indicative of the four forest types. The oak community lacked certain species/genera known to be distinctive of oak woods in Britain, possibly due to low inoculum availability as a result of historic removal of Ireland’s oak forests. Our results indicate that, while being similar to native forests in species richness, non-native forests of Sitka spruce and Scots pine in Ireland harbour many fungal species which are not typical of native forests, particularly members of the genus Cortinarius. ► This is the first published systematic study of Irish forest macrofungi. ► Sporocarp results from 3 yr were analysed using multivariate statistics and rarefaction analysis. ► 186 macrofungal species were recorded over 3 yr from four forest types in Ireland. ► The fungal communities of ash, oak, Scot’s pine and Sitka spruce were significantly different and are described. ► Plantation forests contain many native fungal species, but also fungal species not typical of native Irish forests.
ISSN:1754-5048
DOI:10.1016/j.funeco.2011.12.008