Phyllosphere fungi harbor a tremendous species diversity and play important ecological roles. However, little is known about their distribution patterns within forest ecosystems. We examined how species diversity and community composition of phyllosphere fungi change along a vertical structure in a tropical forest in Thailand. Fungal communities in 144 leaf samples from 19 vertical layers (1.28...

Oak is the most important forest tree in Kurdistan province (Iran). Fungi are associated with oak trees as parasite, saprophyte and endophyte. The endophytic fungi are known components of biodiversity and have beneficial effects on host plants. During 2012-13 in a survey on endophytic fungi of oak trees in forest regions of Kurdistan province asymptomatic samples were collected from healthy twi...

Forest nurseries in Sweden produce ca. 360 million seedlings of Pinus sylvestris L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst. annually. Fungi represent the largest microbial component in rhizospheres and may significantly affect health and, consequently, quality of the seedlings. The aim of this study was to assess fungi focusing on pathogens in roots and the sphagnum peat growth substrate of healthy-looking...

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) is globally dispersed and contamination of soil with this biocide adversely affects its functional biodiversity, particularly of fungi - key colonizers. Their functional role as a community is poorly understood, although a few pathways have been already elucidated in pure cultures. This constitutes here our main challenge - elucidate how fungi influence the pollutant mit...

Little is known about edaphic selection pressures as drivers of contrasting white spruce ectomycorrhizal fungal community structure and diversity in the Canadian boreal forest. We hypothesized that community composition differs among the four sites sampled-nursery, mining site, forest edge, and natural forest. Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal community structure and diversity was studied at the fou...

INTRODUCTION Data derived from sampling at areas contaminated by the Chernobyl fallout have demonstrated the organic layer of soil to be a major pool of radiocesium in forest ecosystems (Linkov and Schell, 1999, Ruhm et al., 1996). Fungi can directly bind or precipitate radionuclides; they also can indirectly affect radionuclide speciation and mobility in forest soils (Gadd, 1996). Fungi are th...

Fire, the primary natural disturbance factor in Fennoscandian boreal forests, is considered to have exerted major selection pressure on most boreal forest organisms. However, recent studies show that few ectomycorrhizal (EM) fungi appear to have evolved post-fi re adaptations, no succession of EM fungi following fi re is apparent after low intensity fi res, and only two EM fungal taxa exclusive...

The Center for Forest Mycology Research (CFMR) at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, WI is one of the few remaining mycological research labs left in the USDA-Forest Service. Traditionally established to study the taxonomy of pathogenic root rot, sap-rot, and heart-rot fungi, the group has changed its focus in recent years towards the biosystematics and ecology of both pathogenic and sa...

Microbiologist, Hydrologist, Soil Microbiologist, and Geomorphologist, respectively, Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Glendora, Calif. Abstract: Raindrop impact is a major agent of soil erosion, and any reduction in its effectiveness reduces sediment production from burned watersheds. A chaparral soil treated with heatshock f...

Root exudates are hypothesized to play a central role in belowground food webs, nutrient turnover, and soil C dynamics in forests, but little is known about the extent to which root-associated microbial communities influence exudation rates in trees. We used a novel experimental technique to inoculate loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) seedlings with indigenous forest fungi to examine how diverse f...