Ten principles for conservation translocations of threatened wood-inhabiting fungi
Abstract Unlike for many other organism groups, conservation translocations of fungi are still rare. Encouraged by recent successful translocations, there is a growing interest in applying this conservation tool to threatened wood-inhabiting fungi. When combined with other conservation or restoration measures, translocation can be an effective measure for preventing further population decline in the short term, and species extinctions in the long term. Translocations can be appropriate for rare and specialist fungal species that occur as small local populations in isolated patches across fragmented landscapes, where there is a low likelihood of successful dispersal between distant host tree…
A fungal perspective on conservation biology
Hitherto fungi have rarely been considered in conservation biology, but this is changing as the field moves from addressing single species issues to an integrative ecosystem-based approach. The current emphasis on biodiversity as a provider of ecosystem services throws the spotlight on the vast diversity of fungi, their crucial roles in terrestrial ecosystems, and the benefits of considering fungi in concert with animals and plants. We reviewed the role of fungi in ecosystems and composed an overview of the current state of conservation of fungi. There are 5 areas in which fungi can be readily integrated into conservation: as providers of habitats and processes important for other organisms…
Revelations for global change and conservation: determining European fungal species’ patterns via a large-scale fruit body ‘meta-database’
PRESENTATION:The driving forces to the geographical structuring of fungi remain notably irresolute, despite well documented trends for a variety of plant and animal groups. This information is critical to planning and mitigating potentially negative consequences of global change, and especially related to conservation. We identified the major geographical and environmental gradients structuring fungal assemblages for two main nutritional modes, saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal fungi, through the use of 4.9 million European fungal fruit body observations. For both fungal nutritional modes, mean annual temperature correlated most with the first gradient identified that structured assemblages.…
Do traits explain colonization-extinction rates of wood-decaying fungi?
In Fennoscandia, intensive forest use has led to substantial decreases in the amount and diversity of dead wood, which constitutes critical habitat for saproxylic species such as wood-decaying fungi. The transient nature of the dead wood habitat implies that metapopulation persistence of wood-decaying fungi depends on the continual colonization of newly created habitat. Dead wood dynamics in turn are strongly influenced by forest management practices. Very little is known about the dispersal ecology of most species and there are competing hypotheses about functional trait effects on dispersal and colonization rates as well as on species sensitivities to forest management. We test for the ef…