Myxomycete communities occurring in fragmented forest patches in two municipalities of Laguna, Philippines

Abstract

In spite of the increasing number of myxomycete studies in the tropical Southeast Asia over the last decades, many forest patches are still left unexplored for the region, in particular in the Philippine archipelago. Thus, an assessment of myxomycete diversity, occurrence, and composition was carried out in forest fragments from two municipalities of the province of Laguna, Philippines. From the 12 established 5 m × 5 m plots, a total of 240 moist chamber cultures were prepared for this study and yielded 42 myxomycete species belonging to 14 genera. Rarefaction curves and several heterogeneity indices revealed higher species diversity in Los Baños than in Calauan. Moreover, the taxonomic diversity index also showed that the taxonomic diversity of myxomycete in Los Baños is more intuitively diverse than in Calauan. In terms of community analysis between the two municipalities, it showed that myxomycete communities clustered between different microhabitats. High values of coefficient of community and percentage similarity indices possibly implicates that spore dispersal in forest fragments in closer proximities may cause high number of shared species (60%). With an addition of Cribraria lepida as a new record for the country, this study now updates the myxomycete profile for Laguna, Philippines.

A comparative diversity study of myxomycetes in the lowland forests of Mt. Malasimbo and Mt. Siburan, Mindoro Island, Philippines

“…Their findings reported that taxonomic and species diversity is higher in unprotected habitats than in protected area where moderate forest disturbance brought by anthropogenic activities could add habitat heterogeneity resulting in a more species-rich and diverse myxomycete community. This has been further an observed trend in the Philippine setting when fragmented forest with moderate level of anthropogenic activities showed higher taxonomic and species diversity than from forest patches with high exposure to human induced activities (Bernardo et al 2018). The results of the present study may follow and support the outcomes of these previous reports, however, we believe that any conclusions about the direct impact of anthropogenic disturbance on the assemblages of myxomycetes require further verification across a range of habitats.…”

“…The country has also shown a great increase in the number of newly recorded taxa as indicated in the study of Mt. Arayat in Pampanga (5 records new to the country, Dagamac et al 2011), Lubang Island (7 records, Macabago et al 2012), Hundred Islands in Pangasinan (3 records, Kuhn et al 2013), Bataan, Cavite andZambales (19 records, dela Cruz et al 2014), the Bicol peninsula (8 records, Dagamac et al 2017b), Bohol Islands (8 records, Macabago et al 2017), and Laguna province (1 record, Bernardo et al 2018). One species new to science, Craterium retisporum G. Moreno, D.W. Mitch.…”

Myxomycetes of Coron Island and additions to the Myxomycetes of Palawan group of islands in the Philippines

“…Badhamia macrocarpa also represents as a new record for the country, which brings the new total for the Philippines to 159. Dagamac and dela Cruz (2019) already tallied 159 for the country after eight additions by Macabago et al (2017) and one by Bernardo et al (2018) to the previous summary of 150 by . In the latter, however, the species Didymium anellus Morgan was counted twice; therefore, the corrected total then was 149.…”

Application of Constructivist Teaching Approach in Introducing New Environmental Concepts to Young Elementary Students in the Philippines: A Small Class Sized Experience from Slime Moulds Modeling

“…This is well-appreciated by students doing outdoor field excursions. If not found in the field, they may serve as an alternative laboratory component which is an effective teaching strategy (Winsett et al, 2017) since slime moulds can be cultured easily using the practical moist chamber technique (Bernardo et al, 2018;Dagamac et al 2015). These attributes prompt scientists, enthusiast and non-experts fascinated with slime moulds.…”