Ectomycorrhizal trees intermingled within Cupressus lusitanica plantations sustain the diversity and availability of edible mushrooms

Abstract

Edible mushrooms are important resources with higher economic value than other non-timber forest products (NTFPs). In this study, we assessed quantitatively how the permanence of native ectomycorrhizal trees within Cupressus lusitanica plantations affects the availability of edible wild mushrooms. We conducted our study in an area composed of native ectomycorrhizal oak-pine forest and no ectomycorrhizal plantations of C. lusitanica. Availability of saprobic and ectomycorrhizal edible mushrooms was evaluated as a multifactorial variable including density, fresh biomass weight, potential monetary value, species richness, dominance and temporal availability of edible wild mushrooms. These variables were compared between plantations and native oak-pine forest through statistical and multi-criteria analyses. No significant differences in temperature and relative humidity at the ground level or in the physical and chemical properties of the soil between the two forest types were detected. We found greater biomass and temporal availability of edible wild mushrooms in the oak-pine forest. Nonetheless, in plantations we found 62.5% of ectomycorrhizal fungi including one species not found in the oak-pine forest (Strobilomyces floccopus), which indicates that native trees in the plantations maintain high diversity of wild mushrooms as well as the availability of some culinary important edible mushrooms.