Endophytes dominate fungal communities in six-year-old veteranisation wounds in living oak trunks

Old trees are rare in the landscape, as many of their associated species. Veteranisation is a method by which attempts made to create microhabitats, otherwise found only old trees, younger at an earlier stage than would occur naturally. Here, we analysed early fungal succession 6 y-old veteranisation wounds ca. 100 y living oak trunks DNA-barcoding wood eight sites Sweden and Norway. We hypothesised basidiomycetes be most abundant, exposed sapwood heartwood select for different communities. identified 686 taxa, mainly ascomycetes, with large overlap species composition surprisingly similar richness, i.e. 325 vs. 308–360, between intact types damaged wood, respectively. Endophytes continued present common wood. The results demonstrate that damage partly fungi too evaluate if can positively favour conservation interest.