Fungal decomposition of woody debris of Castanopsis sieboldii in a subtropical old‐growth forest

Abstract

Fungi, especially basidiomycetes, are the primary agents of woody debris decomposition in terrestrial forest ecosystems. However, quantitative data regarding the abundance and decay activity of woodinhabiting fungi are lacking, especially for tropical and subtropical areas. This study demonstrates the dynamics of decay columns of wood-inhabiting fungi within decaying woody debris of Castanopsis sieboldii and the wood decay activities of those fungi in a subtropical natural forest. Among six basidiomycetes and two ascomycetes observed as sporocarps on fallen boles of C. sieboldii, Microporus affinis was most abundantly observed in terms of frequency of sporocarps and as percentage area of decay columns within cross-sections of boles, especially those in the early stages of decomposition. In decay columns of M. affinis, both acidunhydrolyzable residue (AUR) and holocellulose decayed simultaneously, and wood relative density decreased to 45.8% of that of fresh C. sieboldii wood. A pure culture decay test under laboratory conditions showed that M. affinis was a strong decomposer of AUR and holocellulose. These results suggest that M. affinis has a central role in lignocellulose decomposition of wood of C. sieboldii in the early stages of decomposition.

Application of 13C NMR spectroscopy to characterize organic chemical components of decomposing coarse woody debris from different climatic regions

“…Of these, the difference in decomposer fungi with different ligninolytic and cellulolytic activities partly accounted for the different patterns of organic chemical components in CWD among the study sites. In fact, CWD of broad-leaved trees at ST and CT harbored predominantly ligninolytic fungi (Fukasawa et al 2009(Fukasawa et al , 2011(Fukasawa et al , 2012, whereas Fukasawa et al (2014) encountered both ligninolytic and non-ligninolytic fungi on conifers at SA.…”

“…Undecayed wood samples collected from living trees were denoted as the decay class 0. The log samples were then used to determine the density and the 13 C NMR spectroscopy ... contents of total carbohydrates (TCH), acidunhydrolyzable residues (AUR), and nitrogen (Fukasawa et al 2009(Fukasawa et al , 2012(Fukasawa et al , 2014. Portions of the log samples used for these proximate analyses were combined for each site and each decay class prior to NMR analysis.…”

“…CWD samples (at various stages of decomposition) of dominant broad-leaved trees from a subtropical and a cool temperate forest and of conifers from a subalpine forest were used, as these CWD samples had already been examined for proximate fractions and decomposer fungal assemblages (Fukasawa et al 2009(Fukasawa et al , 2012(Fukasawa et al , 2014. This allowed comparison of the results of proximate analysis with those of NMR spectroscopy.…”

Priority colonization of Cinnamomum camphora litter by endophytes affects decomposition rate, fungal community and microbial activities under field conditions

“…In addition, other fungi, such as Aspergillus, Bjerkandera, Cerrena and Cladosporium, were often found as endophytes in living leaves or needles, and were also often detected in the degrading leave litters (Yuan et al, 2011;He et al, 2012). Bjerkandera and Cerrena were widely looked as woodinhabiting fungi for their secreting ligninolytic enzymes (Hiscox et al, 2010;Berglund et al, 2011;Fukasawa et al, 2012;Pinto et al, 2012;Maza et al, 2014), and they can provide habitats for many other saproxylic forest species besides providing the basic ecosystem services, wood decomposition and nutrient cycling (Penttilä et al, 2013;Kebli et al, 2014). Assembly history of fungal community arised from these endophytic colonization indicated that some endophytic species by priority effect could function well as saprophyte to adapt to new environment (He et al 2012).…”

Mass, nitrogen content, and decomposition of woody debris in forest stands affected by excreta deposited in nesting colonies of Great Cormorant

“…When comparing the N content of logs and branches between the study sites with different stages of Cormorant colonization, the effect of relative density of wood on the N content needs to be taken into account, because N content of woody residues generally increases with the loss of relative density during decomposition (Fukasawa et al 2009(Fukasawa et al , 2012(Fukasawa et al , 2014. Therefore, linear relationships between the relative density and N content were examined for each study site according to the following equations:…”