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

Abstract

The availability and the quality of substrates are important drivers of macrofungal biogeography, and thus macrofungal species occurrence is potentially dependent on the availability of different substrates. However, few studies have explored the properties of macrofungal substrates and assessed the relationship between macrofungal diversity and substrate diversity at a landscape level. To address this issue, we conducted a landscape-scale survey of basidiocarp substrates in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A total of 957 macrofungal species distributed across 73 families and 189 genera were collected. Substrates of these macrofungi were categorized into four main groups (namely, litter, soil, root, and rare substrates) and referenced into 14 sub-substrate types (such as branches, leaves, and fruit). The results revealed that 50% of the observed macrofungal species were symbiotrophs living in ectomycorrhizal association with plant hosts, 30% were saprotrophs decomposing plant litter, 15% lived in soil organic matter, and 5% lived in rare substrates. The most abundant root symbiotic fungi were members of Russula, whereas most litter saprotrophic fungi belonged to Marasmius. Macrofungi commonly favored a single substrate. This specificity was not affected by changes in vegetation or climate. Less than 1% of macrofungi (e.g., Marasmius aff. maximus) could live on multiple substrates. Most of these unusual macrofungi were characterized as highly mobile and were generally found in successional areas. In secondary forests, our survey indicated that significant correlations exist between substrate preference and taxonomic diversity, reflected as higher substrate diversity generally accompanied by higher macrofungal diversity. In conclusion, substrate preference is an important factor driving macrofungal composition and distribution in the GMS. Macrofungi that thrive on multiple substrates constitute pioneer groups that have an important role in establishing macrofungal communities in new habitats. These observations have furthered our understanding of how substrate preferences could explain macrofungal biogeography.

Changes in landscape ecology between nature reserve and palm oil plantation in West Java, Indonesia based on the observations of macrofungal population

“…In contrast, oil palm plantations have homogeneous plant species and the plantation floor is always cleaned. This condition results in a smaller macrofungal species richness in the interior area than its ecotone (Ye et al 2019). The macrofungal species richness in the PTPN 2004 interior area, which was higher compared to its ecotone, was due to the presence of four piles of tankos located at the exploration area.…”

“…Species accumulation curves were generated by collector and random methods with 1000 permutations (Schön et al 2018;Atrena et al 2020;Kärvemo et al 2021). The analysis of the macrofungal species distribution was done by Venn diagram (López-Quintero et al 2012;O'Hanlon et al 2013;Brunner et al 2014;Ghate et al 2014;Wei et al 2019;Ye et al 2019;Runnel et al 2021).…”

Composition of woody plant communities drives macrofungal community composition in three climatic regions

“…Compared to the close relationship between host plants and EMF (Smith & Read, 2008), NMF are likely to increase in species richness via a greater abundance of available plant litter (Tilman, 2001). As saprophytic fungi, NMF can utilize a wide variety of substrates (Yamashita et al 2008), including soil, litter, living wood, decaying wood, leaves and branches, and their distributions are closely tied to substrate distribution (Ye et al 2019). Therefore, even though NMF have a lower host specificity with host plants (May, 1991; Gilbert & Sousa, 2002), they could potentially increase species richness by niche complementarity (Tilman, 2001).…”

Exploring the Relationships between Macrofungi Diversity and Major Environmental Factors in Wunvfeng National Forest Park in Northeast China

“…Fungal communities living on the wood are closely dependent upon environmental factors, such as the amount, diameter, and stage of wood decomposition [16], wood chemistry [17], age [18], and tree species [19]. Factors influencing terricolous saprotrophic communities include litter quantity and pH [20], soil P content [21,22], plant species [23,24], and temperature [25]. The processes of natural or human-induced change in the vegetation composition of forests are also important drivers of fungal diversity [26][27][28], as they are associated with significant changes in litter and soil quality in the long term [29][30][31].…”