Native Forests Have a Higher Diversity of Macrofungi Than Comparable Plantation Forests in the Greater Mekong Subregion

Abstract

The Greater Mekong River Subregion (GMS) is a global biodiversity hotspot. Macrofungi play an essential role as decomposers, parasites, and symbionts, and are also an important source of medicine, food, and income for many communities in the GMS; however, the diversity and composition of macrofungi in this region remain poorly understood. In order to help address this knowledge gap, we established 20 permanent study plots in the GMS (native forests, tea plantation, pine plantations, mixed rubber and coffee plantation). Macrofungal diversity and community composition were evaluated across four study sites classified to two climate types and two management methods. Heat maps and nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) were used to show differences in macrofungal community composition, and linear relationships were illustrated in order to analyze how environmental factors influenced macrofungal diversity and community composition. In total, 7028 specimens were collected, belonging to 1360 species, 216 genera, and 79 families. Russula, Lactarius, Amanita, Mycena, Suillus, and Inocybe were found to be the dominant genera in the GMS. We found that ectomycorrhizal fungi were dominant in temperate forests and that saprobic fungi were dominant in tropical forests. We also found that macrofungal community composition in native forests differed from that of plantation forests, indicating that plantations can provide different and complementary habitats for macrofungal growth. Our analysis of environmental factors revealed that macrofungal diversity was weakly correlated with tree species richness, and strongly correlated with elevation and latitude.

Elevation influence the macrofungi diversity and composition of Gunung Korbu, Perak, Malaysia

“…Moreover, most of the polypore fungi have tough and hard fruiting bodies that grow perennially and they can thus be found at almost any time of the year and abundantly in an area (Thi and Lee 2010b). These results correspond to the study by Li et al (2018a) and Lee et al (2014) where saprobic fungi, especially litter-decomposing macrofungi, are the dominant and diverse fungal group in tropical forests. Besides, according to Luo et al (2016), no significant relationships were found between environment variables and the diversity and community composition of saprotrophic fungi in subalpine pine forest.…”

Substrate Preference Determines Macrofungal Biogeography in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region

“…These subtropical areas served as buffer zones between areas of root or litter macrofungi domination and harbored larger amounts of soil and rare macrofungal species than temperate and tropical areas ( Figure 5). Similar patterns of distribution have been shown in past studies using molecular analyses [29,57,58]. The higher substrate diversity in subtropical areas can be explained by the interactions between vegetation and climate factors.…”

“…Macrofungi were identified as morphospecies with the aid of monographs and guides books [7,9,10,16,24,26,29] according to the specimens' macro-and micro-morphological characteristics. Macrofungal nomenclature followed that of the Index Fungorum.…”

“…Root fungi and litter fungi showed contrasting distribution patterns as the dominant fungal groups in temperate and tropical forests, respectively ( Figure 5). Temperate forests had a higher abundance and diversity of ectomycorrhizal tree species compared to tropical and subtropical forests [29,51,52]. Thus, it is expected that they would support a higher presence of root-associated fungal species [53].…”

“…Detailed site information regarding location description, vegetation composition, and climate characteristics is provided in Table 1. [29]. The sampling times were adjusted according to the timing of the local rainy season.…”