Abstract
The aim of the research was to check whether the healing of bark-stripping wounds of the silver fir tree trunks reduces the share of wood-decomposing fungi, which may be the result of inter-species interactions. The study carried out in Gorce National Park in Polish Western Carpathians analyzed drill holes of sapwood from three types of wounds (fresh, healed and old) on fir trunks with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 4.0–16.9 cm as a result of bark-stripping by red deer (Cervus elaphus). In the wood of fresh wounds Alternaria alternata (Fr.) Keissl. and Arthrinium arundinis (Corda) Dyko & B. Sutton had the largest share in mycobiota. Phompsis spp. and the species Sydowia polyspora (Bref. & Tavel) E. Müll. and Epicoccum nigrum Link were also isolated. The dominants in old wounds were Eutypa spp., Phomopsis spp. and Cylindrobasidium evolvens (Fr.) Jülich. Healed wounds were dominated by Trichoderma atroviride P. Karst, a fungus antagonistic to many fungal pathogens. Such properties are shared by A. arundinis, especially common in fresh wound wood. It seems that these fungi support the process of wounded tree regeneration (healing of wounds) and limit the activity of wood-decaying fungi in old age, which makes fir survival very high. Thus, even a strong red deer pressure cannot be considered the basic factor determining the dynamics of fir in this part of the Carpathians.
Highlights
The bark stripping by ungulates is the result of their need for food and specific nutrients contained in the bark, including different fiber fractions [1] in the hard-to-survive winter period [2], and in summer [3]
Wood samples were taken with a Pressler drill from a sapsilver fir trunks, referring to three categories of wounds: fresh wounds marked with the wood part of silver fir trunks, referring to three categories of wounds: fresh wounds symbol “F”
Fungi belonging to the genus Phomopsis were isolated, as well as the species Sydowia polyspora
Summary
The bark stripping by ungulates is the result of their need for food and specific nutrients contained in the bark, including different fiber fractions [1] in the hard-to-survive winter period [2], and in summer [3] This method of a diet supplementing is typical for forest representatives of Cervidae including genera Alces, Capreolus, Cervus, Dama, Odocoileus, Rangifer [1] and, unless it causes direct, serious economic damage to forests, is generally acceptable and these animals are treated as key factors of natural ecological processes shaping inter-species relationships and the diversity and structure of forest plant communities [4,5]. Among the potential perpetrators of wood decay, he mentions fungi of the genus Stereum, and species currently included in the so-called
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