Abstract
AbstractAimThe tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius is a pivotal wood decomposer in European beech Fagus sylvatica forests. The fungus, however, has regionally declined due to centuries of logging. To unravel biogeographical drivers of arthropod communities associated with this fungus, we investigated how space, climate and habitat amount structure alpha and beta diversity of arthropod communities in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius.LocationTemperate zone of Europe.TaxonArthropods.MethodsWe reared arthropods from fruitbodies sampled from 61 sites throughout the range of European beech and identified 13 orders taxonomically or by metabarcoding. We estimated the total number of species occurring in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius in European beech forests using the Chao2 estimator and determined the relative importance of space, climate and habitat amount by hierarchical partitioning for alpha diversity and generalized dissimilarity models for beta diversity. A subset of fungi samples was sequenced for identification of the fungus’ genetic structure.ResultsThe total number of arthropod species occurring in fruitbodies of F. fomentarius across European beech forests was estimated to be 600. Alpha diversity increased with increasing fruitbody biomass; it decreased with increasing longitude, temperature and latitude. Beta diversity was mainly composed by turnover. Patterns of beta diversity were only weakly linked to space and the overall explanatory power was low. We could distinguish two genotypes of F. fomentarius, which showed no spatial structuring.Main conclusionFomes fomentarius hosts a large number of arthropods in European beech forests. The low biogeographical and climatic structure of the communities suggests that fruitbodies represent a habitat that offers similar conditions across large gradients of climate and space, but are characterized by high local variability in community composition and colonized by species with high dispersal ability. For European beech forests, retention of trees with F. fomentarius and promoting its recolonization where it had declined seems a promising conservation strategy.
Highlights
Most parts of the temperate zone of Europe—from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea and from southern Italy to southern Sweden—are naturally covered by forests dominated by European beech Fagus sylvatica (Figure 1)
Our results indicate that fruitbodies of F. fomentarius form an important micro‐habitat in European beech forests, hosting a rich fauna
The ar‐ thropod communities included about 30 dominant species which occurred at most sites across Europe and can be considered typi‐ cal for fruitbodies of F. fomentarius
Summary
Most parts of the temperate zone of Europe—from the Iberian Peninsula to the Black Sea and from southern Italy to southern Sweden—are naturally covered by forests dominated by European beech Fagus sylvatica (Figure 1). Towards its ecological range limits, increasing presence of other tree species and arthropods associated to these trees (Brändle & Brandl, 2001) may further influence the regional species pool These natural drivers of community structure in beech forests interact with anthropogenic factors. F. fomen‐ tarius has a much larger range than European beech covering the temperate and boreal zones of Europe, Asia and North America Outside beech forests, it occurs especially in riparian and boreal for‐ ests on Betula, Populus, Alnus or other hardwood trees (Matthewman & Pielou, 1971; Reibnitz, 1999; Rukke, 2000). We expected (a) decreasing alpha diversity and increasing nested‐ ness with latitude due to the recolonization history of beech, (b) de‐ creasing alpha diversity and increasing nestedness from east‐west due to the anthropogenic land use history, (c) increasing turnover with increasing differences in macro‐climatic conditions across both latitudinal and longitudinal space, and (d) increasing alpha diversity with increasing habitat amount at local and landscape scales
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
