Macrofungi diversity in a tropical wet evergreen forest of Eastern Himalayan foothills: A case study of Dihing Patkai National Park, Assam, India

Abstract

Dihing Patkai National Park (DPNP) is situated in the Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts of Assam, India. The forest type of the park is Assam Valley Tropical Wet Evergreen Forest (category 1B/C1). In order to explore the fungal diversity, different randomly selected belt transects of size 0.1 ha were laid in the park. Overall, 159 species of macrofungi representing 81 genera, 43 families, 14 orders, 5 classes, and 2 phyla under the kingdom fungi have been recorded from the Park. Maximum species were found in the family Polyporaceae (34 spp.) followed by Mycenaceae (14 spp.), Omphalotaceae (11 spp.), Marasmiaceae (14 spp.), Russulaceae (10 spp.), Tricholomataceae, Hymenochaetaceae, Amanitaceae, Agaricaceae, Xylariaceae (5 spp. each) and so on. The values of the Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index, Simpson diversity index, and Brillouin’s index were found to be 3.54, 0.94, and 3.49 respectively, which means the level of diversity of macrofungi was in the higher category. The evenness index was found to be 0.22 or only 22% of species were common or shared among plots within the DPNP. The four diversity indices proved that the DPNP has high species diversity and a healthy forest ecosystem. Maximum species of macrofungi (22%) were found associated with Dipterocarpus retusus followed by Castanopsis indica (13%), Shorea assamica (11%), Vatica lanceaefolia (9%), Mesua ferrea (8%), and the rest of macrofungal species associated with the plant species ranged from 5% to 1%. The present study is an attempt to document the fungal diversity in the tropical wet evergreen forest of the Eastern Himalayan foothills that will be helpful to the scientific community for further study.