Resource use of wood-inhabiting fungi in different boreal forest types

Generalist species are usually widespread and abundant, and thrive in heterogeneous environments. Specialists, in turn, are generally more restricted in their range, and benefit from more stable conditions. Therefore, increasing human-induced disturbance can have more negative effects on specialist than generalist species. We assessed the specialization of 77 wood-inhabiting fungal species across seven boreal forest types and different substratum qualities. A significantly higher number of specialist species was associated with herb-rich forests and afforested fields than with managed coniferous forests and wood pastures, the number of specialists associated with natural coniferous forests …

The effects of forest management on wood-inhabiting fungi occupying dead wood of different diameter fractions

Forest management has caused severe ecological degradation throughout the Globe. One of its most prominent consequences is the drastic change in dead wood profile and consequently in the dead wood dependent biota. Wood-inhabiting fungi are, considering ecosystem functions, the most important species group utilizing dead wood, because they take care of majority of the decaying process. The earlier research focusing on the effects of forest management on wood-inhabiting fungi has strongly focused on large dead wood pieces (i.e. coarse woody debris, CWD), even though it has been shown that a major part of fungal diversity utilizes (also) small dead wood pieces (i.e. [very] fine woody debris, […

Cross-taxon congruence and relationships to stand characteristics of vascular plants, bryophytes, polyporous fungi and beetles in mature managed boreal forests

Abstract Multi-taxon analyses of ecological assemblages are needed when the effects of forestry on biodiversity are examined. Management usually simplifies the structure of forests, which results in quantitative and qualitative declines in many microhabitats and species associated with them. In Fennoscandia, most forests are managed for industrial use of wood, but relatively little is known about the relationships between structural components and biodiversity in managed forests. Abundance, composition or species number of different species groups reacting similarly to variation in their environment would be a useful tool e.g. in estimating responses of species that are more difficult to sa…

Ecology, environmental requirements and conservation of corticioid fungi occupying small diameter dead wood

The increasing human impact upon the biosphere of earth is causing profound changes across all spatial scales. The ability to cope with human-induced disturbance varies among organisms; specialist species are more negatively affected than generalist species. Forests are among the most heavily affected ecosystems; especially the dead wood associated organisms are in peril. The earlier research has strongly focused on large diameter dead wood and associated species. The aim of this thesis was to investigate small diameter dead wood and collect systematic information about species richness and abundance as well as habitat and substrate preferences of associated corticioid fungi. Fungal data wa…

Updates to Finnish aphyllophoroid funga (Basidiomycota):new species and range extensions

Abstract The knowledge of Finnish aphyllophoroid funga has increased substantially in recent years. In this article we present six species new to Finland: Cristinia (cf.) rhenana Grosse-Brauckm., Hyphodontiella hauerslevii K.H. Larss. & Hjortstam, Leptosporomyces montanus (Jülich) Ginns & M.N.L Lefebvre, Osteina obducta (Berk.) Donk, Sebacina helvelloides (Schwein.) Burt, and Tulasnella brinkmannii sensu lato Bres. The finding of Osteina obducta is the first record in Northern Europe. The article also contributes new records of 56 nationally rare species (maximum ten previous records in Finland). Additionally, we list 110 regionally new species, found for the first time from a certa…

The role of novel forest ecosystems in the conservation of wood-inhabiting fungi in boreal broadleaved forests

The increasing human impact on the earth’s biosphere is inflicting changes at all spatial scales. As well as deterioration and fragmentation of natural biological systems, these changes also led to other, unprecedented effects and emergence of novel habitats. In boreal zone, intensive forest management has negatively impacted a multitude of deadwood-associated species. This is especially alarming given the important role wood-inhabiting fungi have in the natural decay processes. In the boreal zone, natural broad-leaved-dominated, herb-rich forests are threatened habitats which have high wood-inhabiting fungal species richness. Fungal diversity in other broadleaved forest habitat types is po…

Dead wood profile of a semi-natural boreal forest – implications for sampling

Dead wood profile of a forest is a useful tool for describing forest characteristics and assessing forest disturbance history. Nevertheless, there are few studies on dead wood profiles, including both coarse and fine dead wood, and on the effect of sampling intensity on the dead wood estimates. In a semi-natural boreal forest, we measured every dead wood item over 2 cm in diameter from 80 study plots. From eight plots, we further recorded dead wood items below 2 cm in diameter. Based on these data we constructed the full dead wood profile, i.e. the overall number of dead wood items and their distribution among different tree species, volumes of different size and decay stage categories. We …

Kääpien käyttökelpoisuus orvakkalajiston indikaattoreina erilaisissa metsäelinympäristöissä

Responses of polypore fungi following disturbance-emulating harvesting treatments and deadwood creation in boreal Norway spruce dominated forests

ABSTRACTThe emulation of natural disturbances in harvesting has become a widely accepted approach to reach ecologically sustainable forest management. The purpose of this study was to examine the r...

Size matters in studies of dead wood and wood-inhabiting fungi

Abstract Because biased biodiversity surveys may result in ineffective use of conservation or research resources it is important that measures for biodiversity are accurate. In forest ecosystems wood-inhabiting fungi are an ecologically important species group. We addressed the question whether or not the traditional methodology to survey only coarse woody debris provides accurate estimates of the assemblages of wood-inhabiting fungi or the dead wood itself. In this study, we included all dead wood pieces irrespective of the diameter. Our results showed that the chosen minimum size of studied dead wood pieces has crucial importance for species recordings of wood-inhabiting fungi and for rec…