Seasonal disconnects between saprobic and mycorrhizal sporocarp communities in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

The southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States are heavily forested with diverse forest types and vegetation structures is generally considered a biodiversity hotspot. Fungal sporocarp investigations this region not new, but multi-year interseasonal into community patterns rare. Using 4-year (2014–2017) repeated monthly macrofungal sampling dataset (May–October) across an elevational gradient (associated structure), we queried community, seasonal, guild ecological patterns. In doing so, (1) demonstrate temporal disconnect between saprobic ectomycorrhizal taxa, (2) describe increased variability growing season, (3) explore individual taxa occurrences seasons examine co-occurrence guilds. Further, congruence metabarcoding fungal datasets advocate utility of both schemes.