The forests in North West Amazonia constitute a mosaic of different forest types with local and particular assemblages (Gentry 1988b; Tuomisto et al. 1995; Hoorn et al. 2010). Patterns in the spatial distribution of fungal species provide selleckchem important clues
about the underlying mechanisms that structure ecological communities and these are central to set conservation priorities (Mueller and Schmit 2007). Although microorganisms comprise much of Earth’s biodiversity, little is known about their biodiversity and the function of this diversity compared to that of plants and animals (Green and Bohannan 2006). Analyses of large data sets regarding fungal biodiversity from Amazonian forests Selleck Geneticin are lacking, but it seems fair to consider that the availability and quality of suitable substrates are important factors that determine patterns of distribution and species richness of fungi. Consequently, Quisinostat differences in taxonomic and chemical plant diversity will affect fungal diversity (Swift et al. 1979). Habitat heterogeneity offers variation in microclimates that will influence fungal species diversity and productivity (Singer 1976, Gómez-Hernández and Williams-Linera 2011). A trend of decreasing diversity of both plants and macrofungi
was observed in the younger plots, except the recently established chagra (AR-1y). This plot showed a high proportion of dead wood (trunks
and twigs), lacked a tree canopy and, hence, received more insolation and was more dry, and had richer soils as a result of slash and burn for agriculture (C. Lopez-Q., unpubl. data). A particular assemblage of highly productive wood-inhabiting fungal species occurred on the supply of woody substrates, including species as Pycnoporus sanguineus, Schizophyllum commune and Lentinus species that seem to form sporocarps during periods of relative drought and more intense insolation. One may wonder what may have Buspirone HCl been the cause for this sudden emergence of many sporocarps just after cutting down the trees? It seems unlikely that this is the result of fresh colonization just after the trees were cut down. A possibility may be that the wood-inhabiting species may have been present on or inside the living trees, e.g. as colonizers or as endophytes. Similar fungi have been found as endophytes in oil palms in Thailand (Rungjindamai et al. 2008; Pinruan et al. 2010). Crozier et al. (2006) observed similar basidiomycetous endophytes in bark of stems of the chocolate tree Theobroma cacao, and suggested that these fungi possess an asymptomatic endophytic stage that may switch to a saprotrophic stage when the host senesce. According to these authors, fungi with such flexible life styles may have temporal and spatial advantages over fungi without such flexibility.