Diversity, resource utilization, and phenology of fruiting bodies of litter-decomposing macrofungi in subtropical, temperate, and subalpine forests

Abstract

The diversity, vegetative and reproductive characteristics, and phenology of litter decomposing macrofungi (LDM) were compared between humus forms and climatic regions. Fruiting bodies of LDM were examined for the forest floor of subtropical (ST), cool temperate (CT), and subalpine (SA) forests in Japan. Field surveys during one growing season yielded 35, 32, and 18 species in ST, CT, and SA, respectively. Species richness was generally higher in mull than in moder humus and in a warmer than in a cooler climate. A total of ten fungal families were observed, and species in the Mycenaceae dominated in the LDM assemblages at all study sites. A larger number of species fruited on deeper F layers of the forest floor in SA than in ST, where 74 % of species fruited directly on leaf litter. This observation was consistent with the analysis of radiocarbon content in fruiting bodies, implying that LDM tended to utilize older carbon accumulated at deeper layers of the forest floor in cooler climates. Seasonal changes in the fruiting frequency over a growing season exhibited similar two-peak patterns for all the study sites, coinciding with the periods of rainfall and increasing and decreasing air temperatures in early summer and autumn, respectively, but the fruiting period extended longer in a warmer than in a cooler climate.