I summarize current knowledge about the ecosystem functions of wood decomposition in forests with a particular focus on the effects of fungal wood decay types (traditionally categorized into white‐, ...brown‐, and soft‐rot) on the community composition of saproxylic organisms, forest tree regeneration, and carbon sequestration. Deadwoods of different decay types show markedly different physicochemical and biological properties. High carbohydrate availability in white‐rotted wood promotes the activities of nitrogen‐fixing bacteria; thus white‐rotted wood is a good dietary source for many wood‐eating invertebrates. In contrast, brown‐rotted wood is unattractive to saproxylic communities due to the high recalcitrance of accumulated lignin, low nutrient content, and low pH. Nevertheless, some species have adapted to these conditions and form distinctive communities on brown‐rotted wood. Tree seedlings that are associated with brown‐rotted wood are symbiotic with arbuscular and ericoid mycorrhizal fungal species, but not ectomycorrhizal species. Thus, the diversity of fungal communities associated with a variety of wood decay types produces habitat diversity for saproxylic communities and promotes biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Wood decay type also affects carbon sequestration in forests as brown‐rotted wood might be more instrumental in soil organic matter accumulation than white‐rotted wood. An important aspect of wood decay type is that the wood decay activities of fungi can have indirect long‐lasting cascading impacts on forest biodiversity by altering the physicochemical properties of deadwood. Including the effects of wood decay type in ecological models is thus important for predicting the long‐term dynamics of biodiversity, vegetation, and carbon cycling in forest ecosystems.
I summarize current knowledge about the ecosystem functions of wood decomposition in forests with a particular focus on the effects of fungal wood decay types (traditionally categorized into white‐, brown‐, and soft‐rot) on the community composition of saproxylic organisms, forest tree regeneration, and carbon sequestration. An important aspect of wood decay type is that the wood decay activities of fungi can indirectly have long‐lasting, cascading impacts on forest biodiversity by altering the physicochemical properties of deadwood. Including the effects of wood decay type in ecological models is thus important for predicting the long‐term dynamics of biodiversity, vegetation, and carbon cycling in forest ecosystems.
Taxonomic studies including morphological observations and phylogenetic analyses were conducted on Japanese “uragin-take”, an unidentified species from Amazonia, Brazil and their allies. Phylogenetic ...analyses using ITS, nrLSU and RPB2 regions revealed that “uragin-take”, Neofomitella polyzonata and the unidentified species formed a monophyletic clade separate from the clade including the other four Neofomitella spp. and that “uragin-take” is conspecific with N. polyzonata. Morphological investigations on authentic specimens revealed that Polyporus subradiatus is a prior name for N. polyzonata. We propose Hirticrusta gen. nov. typified by H. subradiata segregated from Neofomitella, and we erected H. amazonica sp. nov. for the unidentified species. Hirticrusta is characterized by annual to biennial and sessile basidiocarps, semicircular to dimidiate pileus, velutinous to tomentose hairs on pileus surface, buff to brown context with a crustose layer indicated by a dark brown line forming a longitudinal section below the superficial hairs, a trimitic hyphal system, crustose layer composed of parallel and densely arranged brown hyphae and cylindrical basidiospores. The new species, H. amazonica is distinguishable from other polypores by downy and long tomentum on the pileus surface (up to 20 mm thick), brown context with a dark brown layer below the tomentum and round pores (5–7/mm).
•“Uragin-take” in Japan is conspecific with N. polyzonata.•Hirticrusta gen. nov. is described based on morphological and phylogenetical data.•Hirticrusta subradiata comb. nov. is proposed.•Hirticrusta amazonica sp. nov. is described for the unidentified Amazonia species.
We studied the diversity, composition, and long-term dynamics of wood-inhabiting fungi in
Quercus robur
stumps left after commercial tree harvesting in Lithuania. Sampling of wood was carried out at ...three sites and from stumps, which were 10-, 20-, 30-, 40-, and 50-year-old. DNA was isolated from wood samples and fungal communities analyzed using high-throughput sequencing. Results showed that stump age had a limited effect on fungal diversity. The development of fungal communities in oak stums was found to be a slow process as fungal communities remained similar for decades, while larger changes were only detected in older stumps. The most common fungi were
Eupezizella
sp. (18.4%),
Hyphodontia pallidula
(12.9%),
Mycena galericulata
(8.3%), and
Lenzites betulinus
(7.1%).
Fistulina hepatica
, which is a red-listed wood-decay oak fungus, was also detected at a low relative abundance in stump wood. In the shortage of suitable substrate, oak stumps may provide habitats for long-term survival of different fungal species, including red-listed and oak-related fungi.
Ecology of wood‐inhabiting fungi in northern forests of Iran Bari, Ehsan; Aghajani, Hamed; Ohno, Katie M. ...
Forest pathology = Journal de pathologie forestière = Zeitschrift für Forstpathologie,
April 2019, 2019-04-00, 20190401, Letnik:
49, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Wood‐decay fungi are important in forest ecosystems and play an important role in nutrient and carbon recycling. The scope of this research was to identify wood‐inhabiting and wood‐decay macrofungi ...and determine their ecology. We sampled standing trees and dead wood of oak and hornbeam in the northern forests of Iran, specifically in Mazandaran and Golestan provinces. We assessed the influence of field slope, elevation, site direction and the height of fungal sporocarp position on the tree. The species of wood‐inhabiting and wood‐decay fungi belonged to 11 families: Polyporaceae; Stereaceae; Ganodermataceae; Physalacriaceae; Agaricaceae; Xylariaceae; Pluteaceae; Coprinaceae; Strophariaceae; Pleurotaceae; and Hydnaceae. The most common fungal species identified belonged to the Polyporaceae and Ganodermataceae and predominantly grew on trees growing on a slope of 20%, at an altitude of 700–900 m, 0–3 m from the ground a southwesterly site direction and the northern sides of both tree species. These results indicated that field slope was the most important factor in determining fungal sporocarp abundance.
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•Service life of wood depends on the wood inherent durability and material climate.•Material climate in real objects was determined in four different objects.•There was 50.000 ...moisture measurements performed on 34 locations in four objects.•The results indicates the correlation between wood moisture and fungal degradation.
Wood is one of the most important construction materials and its use in building applications has further expanded in recent decades. In order to enable even more extensive and reliable use of wood in outdoor applications, factors affecting wood’s service life need to be understood. It is well known that fungal degradation of wood is predominantly affected by temperature (T) and moisture content (MC). In order to elucidate the influence of these two factors, long term monitoring of T, relative humidity (RH) and MC at four locations was carried out: a model house made of thermally modified wood in Mozirje (1), the WWII partisan hospital Franja (2), a hayrack in Pokljuka (3) and a house in the north of Slovenia in Vrba (4). The results clearly showed that fungal degradation of wood is influenced by MC and T. In addition, the influence of micro-climatic conditions on fungal decay was shown.
Wood‐decay fungi are major contributors to damage wood and logs, resulting in substantial economic losses. This study assessed the decay caused by Trametes flavida and Daldinia eschscholtzii on ...Gmelina arborea, Samanea saman, Albizia lebbeck, Acacia auriculiformis and Swietenia mahagoni. Both fungi demonstrated their ability to decay wood. However, the extent of damage varied significantly among the tested hardwood species. Findings showed that Trametes flavida caused greater wood mass and density loss than Daldinia eschscholtzii. Among the tested hardwood species, G. arborea was found to be more susceptible to the decay fungi, followed by S. saman, A. lebbeck, A. auriculiformis and S. mahagoni, respectively. The study will encourage the scientific management of timber and logs in sawmill depots to minimize the decay of wood and incurred economic loss.
Improved understanding of mycorrhizal diversity in mycoheterotrophic (MH) plants is a key element of studies that investigate their evolution. MH plants are completely dependent on their mycorrhizal ...fungi for carbon. Mycorrhizal fungi of the MH genus Yoania (Orchidaceae), which is distributed in East Asia, have yet to be identified. We identified the mycobionts of three Japanese Yoania species, Y. amagiensis, Y. flava, and Y. japonica, by sequencing the internal transcribed spacer regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The sequences obtained were assigned to five operational taxonomic units (OTUs), among which four belonged to the genus Physisporinus (Meripilaceae, Polyporales) and one to Thelephoraceae. Yoania flava and Y. japonica were specifically associated with a single OTU of Physisporinus, while Y. amagiensis was associated with four Physisporinus OTUs. A phylogenetic analysis showed that fungal sequences from species of two other MH orchid genera, Cyrtosia and Galeola, also belonged to Physisporinus and were closely related to the Yoania mycobionts. This is the first study to report that (i) wood-rotting Physisporinus fungi form mycorrhizae with plant species, and (ii) have an important role in orchid mycoheterotrophy.
•Symbiotic fungi of mycoheterotrophic plants (MHPs) were analyzed.•Mycobionts of three Japanese Yoania species were molecularly identified.•Four out of 5 fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs) belonged to Physisporinus.•Phylogeny revealed the fungi from other MHPs also clustered in Physisporinus.•White-lot wood-decay fungi Physisporinus plays an important role in MH symbiosis.
The experiment conducted in the Kampinos National Park since 2015 was aimed at assessing the sprouting ability of black cherry (
Ehrh.) in response to different measures of mechanical control and ...mycobiota colonizing the dying trees. Basal cut-stump, cutting at ca. 1 m above the ground and girdling were performed on 4 terms, two plots and applied to 25 trees, 600 trees in total. Sprouts were removed every 8 weeks since the initial treatment for 4 consecutive growing seasons, except winter-treated trees. At the end of the fourth season of control, 515 out of 600 trees were dead (86%): 81% on Lipków and 90% on Sieraków plot. Among 18 experiment variants with sprouts removal, 17 showed more than 80% of dead trees. The lowest, 76% share, concerned summer cut-stump at the base of the tree. For winter measures, the share of dead trees was lower in all cases and ranged from 28% to 64% proving that sprouts removal contributes to the drop of sprouting strength and quicker dying of the trees. Almost 80% of trees showed sporocarps that represented 51 taxa of macrofungi in total, including 6 Ascomycota and 45 Basidiomycota. The group of six most frequently encountered fungi includes:
. Both plots had similar share of black cherry individuals with sporocarps of macrofungi, that is, 81% and 78% for Sieraków and Lipków respectively. The share of colonized trees and the number of reported macrofungal taxa increased significantly compared to the year following the treatment. In addition, the composition of macrofungi changed with the progressing dying of trees. These results broaden the knowledge about macroscopic fungi colonising and living on black cherry within its secondary range of distribution. Moreover, one macrofungus and two microfungi new for KNP are reported.
The emerging climate change risks have drawn increased attention to renewable energy sources, including forest biomass. However, the quality of fuelwood is often compromised by a variety of fungi. ...The purpose of the present study was to determine selected energy parameters of beech wood affected by four species of white-rot fungi: Grifola frondosa, Hericium coralloides, Meripilus giganteus, and Trametes gibbosa. Wood degradation was studied under laboratory conditions. On days 60 and 120 after inoculation, beech wood samples were analysed in terms of moisture content, density, elemental composition (C, H, N, S, O), ash content, as well as gross and net calorific value. Reference data were provided by measurements of healthy wood. Elemental analysis indicated small differences in absolute values between healthy and affected wood. White rot led to a slight decrease in C and H and an increase in O. In addition, a significant rise in moisture content was observed (by more than 100%). These factors reduced the net calorific value of healthy beech wood (18.37 MJ kg−1) by 0.3 MJ kg−1 (T. gibbosa) to 0.5 MJ kg−1 (H. coralloides) after 120 days of the experiment. In terms of the amount of energy contained in a unit of volume, the initial net calorific value of 11.6 GJ m-3 decreased significantly by 18.1% (H. coralloides) to 33.6% (T. gibbosa).
•Beech wood samples were treated with fungi causing white rot.•Fungal degradation of wood reduces its density and calorific value.•Exposure of beech wood to fungi increases ash content.
Most European wood species do not have durable wood. In order to be used in outdoor conditions, non-durable material must be protected. Non-biocidal solutions for wood protection have been attracting ...a lot of attention, particularly in class 2 and 3 applications. One non-biocidal technique is treatment of wood with water repellents, such as wax emulsions and oils. Linseed oil and tung oil are frequently used water repellents. This research reports on the performance of linseed- and tung-oil-treated Norway spruce and beech wood against wood-decay fungi. Additionally, short-term hydrophobic properties were determined (with a tensiometer), as well as long-term hydrophobic properties (by soaking in water) in laboratory and outdoor conditions (electrical resistance measurements). Wood treated with tung oil and linseed oil is protected against brown- and white-rot fungi; however, tung oil was found more effective. Not only did the oils tested prove efficacious against wood-decay fungi, but also they worked against short-, medium-, and long-term water uptake as well. Oil treated wood takes up less water during laboratory tests, as well as during outdoor testing.
•Impregnation of wood with linseed and tung oil improves performance of impregnated wood against wood decay fungi.•Short term and long term water uptake of liquid water in tung and linseed oil treated wood is reduced as well.•Reduced water uptake was proven with laboratory and long term field tests.•Tung and linseed oil is and effective replacement for biocidal treatment in les hazardous applications.
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