Ascomycota In the Shallow Ecoregion of Catarina, Caatinga, Brazil: Part 1

Abstract

Objective: Inventories of fungi are essential, but they are rarely carried out, especially in areas of the Caatinga biome. It is therefore important to carry out surveys and mapping to make knowledge more accessible.  In this context, the aim of this work was to organize and discuss the information and data related to the fungi of Raso da Catarina, cataloguing and presenting the first checklist of Ascomycota in an insufficiently researched locality, adding knowledge from scientific collections, publications, and field expeditions.
  
 Method: Literature searches were carried out on the Ascomycota of the Raso da Catarina Ecoregion; consultations of the Fungal Databases, U.S. National Fungus Collections, the EMBRAPA database (Fungi Reported on Plants in Brazil) and the Mycology Collections Portal; consultations of the speciesLink networks that integrate data from scientific collections; consultations of the Reflora Virtual Herbarium and the INCT-Herbário Virtual da Flora e dos Fungos. In addition to field expeditions in areas of the Raso da Catarina in the municipalities of Paulo Afonso, Jeremoabo and Glória.
  
 Results and conclusion: A total of 243 taxa comprising 75 asexual fungi, 85 lichenized sexual fungi and 73 non-lichenized sexual fungi, distributed in 148 genera, were catalogued. This work represents an initiative to systematize research carried out in Raso da Catarina, with the aim of adding knowledge to the estimate of Ascomycota species in the Caatinga.
  
 Originality/value: Work on fungi in areas of the Raso da Catarina is still incipient. Some data is scattered in a few publications and many taxa are in scientific collections without being published. This is therefore the first checklist of Ascomycota for the Ecoregion and provides relevant information.