TY - JOUR

T1 - Substrate preference determines macrofungal biogeography in the greater Mekong Sub-Region

AU - Ye, Lei

AU - Li, Huili

AU - Mortimer, Peter E.

AU - Xu, Jianchu

AU - Gui, Heng

AU - Karunarathna, Samantha C.

AU - Kumar, Amit

AU - Hyde, Kevin D.

AU - Shi, Lingling

N1 - This research was funded by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under the grant number 41761144055 and 41771063 and CGIAR Research Program 6: Forest, Trees and Agroforestry, the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (NKTSP) under the 12th 5-year National Key Technology Support program with grant number 2013BAB07B06, integration and comprehensive demonstration of key technologies on Green Phosphate mountain Construction for providing the financial support for this study. We would like to thank the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC), project codes 41761144055 and 41771063, and the South East Asian Biodiversity Resources Institute, CAS, under project code Y4ZK111B01. In addition, the CGIAR Research Program 6: Forest, Trees and Agroforestry, the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, under the 12th 5-year National Key Technology Support Program (NKTSP) 2013BAB07B06 integration and comprehensive demonstration of key technologies on Green Phosphate-mountain construction for providing financial support for this study. Kevin D. Hyde thanks the Chinese Academy of Sciences, project number 2013T2S0030, for the award of Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists at Kunming Institute of Botany. Heng Gui would like to thank the funding by the CPSF-CAS Joint Foundation for Excellent Postdoctoral Fellows (Grant No.: 2017LH029), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No.:2018M633435) and the 2018 Yunnan Province Postdoctoral Science Research Foundation. Heng Gui would also like to thank the support from the Human Resources and Social Security Department of Yunnan Province, German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the program: Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists, 2018 (Ref. No.: 91691203) and the China Scholarship Council under the State Scholarship Fund (Ref. No.: 201804910259). We would like to thank the Herbarium of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences for providing us with the use of an electron microscope. Samantha C. Karunarathna thanks the Yunnan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security funded postdoctoral project (number 179122) and National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) project code 31750110478. We would like to thank Elizabeth Tokarz at Yale University and Fiona Worthy in the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Kunming Institute of Botany, China for their assistance with English language and grammatical editing. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 by the authors.

PY - 2019/10/1

Y1 - 2019/10/1

N2 - The availability and the quality of substrates are important drivers of macrofungal biogeography, and thus macrofungal species occurrence is potentially dependent on the availability of different substrates. However, few studies have explored the properties of macrofungal substrates and assessed the relationship between macrofungal diversity and substrate diversity at a landscape level. To address this issue, we conducted a landscape-scale survey of basidiocarp substrates in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A total of 957 macrofungal species distributed across 73 families and 189 genera were collected. Substrates of these macrofungi were categorized into four main groups (namely, litter, soil, root, and rare substrates) and referenced into 14 sub-substrate types (such as branches, leaves, and fruit). The results revealed that 50% of the observed macrofungal species were symbiotrophs living in ectomycorrhizal association with plant hosts, 30% were saprotrophs decomposing plant litter, 15% lived in soil organic matter, and 5% lived in rare substrates. The most abundant root symbiotic fungi were members of Russula, whereas most litter saprotrophic fungi belonged to Marasmius. Macrofungi commonly favored a single substrate. This specificity was not affected by changes in vegetation or climate. Less than 1% of macrofungi (e.g., Marasmius aff. maximus) could live on multiple substrates. Most of these unusual macrofungi were characterized as highly mobile and were generally found in successional areas. In secondary forests, our survey indicated that significant correlations exist between substrate preference and taxonomic diversity, reflected as higher substrate diversity generally accompanied by higher macrofungal diversity. In conclusion, substrate preference is an important factor driving macrofungal composition and distribution in the GMS. Macrofungi that thrive on multiple substrates constitute pioneer groups that have an important role in establishing macrofungal communities in new habitats. These observations have furthered our understanding of how substrate preferences could explain macrofungal biogeography.

AB - The availability and the quality of substrates are important drivers of macrofungal biogeography, and thus macrofungal species occurrence is potentially dependent on the availability of different substrates. However, few studies have explored the properties of macrofungal substrates and assessed the relationship between macrofungal diversity and substrate diversity at a landscape level. To address this issue, we conducted a landscape-scale survey of basidiocarp substrates in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). A total of 957 macrofungal species distributed across 73 families and 189 genera were collected. Substrates of these macrofungi were categorized into four main groups (namely, litter, soil, root, and rare substrates) and referenced into 14 sub-substrate types (such as branches, leaves, and fruit). The results revealed that 50% of the observed macrofungal species were symbiotrophs living in ectomycorrhizal association with plant hosts, 30% were saprotrophs decomposing plant litter, 15% lived in soil organic matter, and 5% lived in rare substrates. The most abundant root symbiotic fungi were members of Russula, whereas most litter saprotrophic fungi belonged to Marasmius. Macrofungi commonly favored a single substrate. This specificity was not affected by changes in vegetation or climate. Less than 1% of macrofungi (e.g., Marasmius aff. maximus) could live on multiple substrates. Most of these unusual macrofungi were characterized as highly mobile and were generally found in successional areas. In secondary forests, our survey indicated that significant correlations exist between substrate preference and taxonomic diversity, reflected as higher substrate diversity generally accompanied by higher macrofungal diversity. In conclusion, substrate preference is an important factor driving macrofungal composition and distribution in the GMS. Macrofungi that thrive on multiple substrates constitute pioneer groups that have an important role in establishing macrofungal communities in new habitats. These observations have furthered our understanding of how substrate preferences could explain macrofungal biogeography.

KW - Greater Mekong Subregion

KW - Mycorrhizal fungi

KW - Saprotrophic fungi

KW - Wood fungi

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85073568844&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/f10100824

DO - 10.3390/f10100824

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85073568844

VL - 10

JO - Forests

JF - Forests

SN - 1999-4907

IS - 10

M1 - 824

ER -