Succession of fungi in the litter of a lake district Oakwood

The Ecology of Fungi on Plant Remains Above the Soil

“…Their role is difficult to assess, as the cultural technique may give predominance to these because of their rapid growth rate, but it is suggested that the next phase of the succession may be one dominated by Mucorales, such as Mortierella ramaniiiana and other fungi such as Trichoderma and Penicillium spp. There is substantial support for this in the work of Saito (1956) and Hering (1965) discussed below. Presumably, at this stage of the decomposition, the Mucorales are in their role as secondary 'sugar fungi' and they may well be associated with the mycelium of Basidiomycetes, such as that of Clitocybe nebularis and Mycena spp., which were permeating the litter at that time.…”

“…The successional pattern on the millipede pellets and the natural succession on the Corylus leaves on which they were fed (Hering, 1965) are quite different. There is no early Phycomycete phase and this will be found true of the majority of successions to be discussed.…”

“…The total nitrogen content of fresh pellets was 1.71",, of the dry weight. Unfortunately, similar figures for undecomposed Corylus leaves, on which the millipede was fed, are not available, but Hering (1967) gives a lower figure of 0.94% for oak leaves.…”

“…This would be a difficult problem to investigate. Hering (1967) sterilized freshly fallen oak leaves witb y irradiation and inoculated tbese with pure cultures of ten common leaf litter fungi. After incubation at 9-1 v C for 3 and 6 months, tbe percentage dry weigbt loss w as calculated and cbemical analyses of the leaves were carried out after 6 months.…”

“…Successions on temperate deciduous tree leaf litter have been followed by Hering (1965) on leaf htter of an oak wood, by Hogg and Hudson (1966) on leaves of beech [Fagus sylvatica) and by Saito (1956) on F. crenata litter. Similar studies have also been made on two further contrasting types of leaf litter, in that of Eucalyptus regnans by Macauley and Thrower (1966) and Pinus sylvestris by Kendrick and Burges (1962).…”