Soil factors influencing the distribution of macrofungi in oak forests of southern Sweden

Abstract

The macrofungal flora (species producing fruitbodies) of oak forest in Scania and N.E. Småland, south Sweden, is compared on the basis of soil chemical and stand structural properties and general differences in the deposition of acid and acidifying pollutants between these two regions. Deposition in Scania is, on average, twice as high and the mean base saturation of the oak forest humus only half of that in Småland. Species characteristic of soils with high base saturation/pH values (e.g. Cortinarius nemorensis, Entoloma nidorosum, Camarophyllus spp., Marasmius epiphyllus) were usually more common in Småland, whereas the opposite was true for most species characteristic of highly acidic soils (e.g. Entoloma cetratum, Lactarius camphoratus, L. theiogalus, Mycena sanguinolenta). Known changes of soil acidity and base saturation in south Sweden during recent decades and information from this and related studies suggest that the species composition of the macrofungal flora in deciduous forest of south Sweden is gradually changing as a result of changing soil chemistry.