Wood-inhabiting fungi in southern Italy forest stands. Morphogroups, vegetation types and decay classes

The authors conducted an ecological study of forests subjected to varying management. The aim of the study was to extend and integrate, within a multivariate context, knowledge of how saproxylic fungal communities behave along altitudinal/vegetational gradients in response to the varying features and quality of coarse woody debris (CWD). The intra-annual seasonal monitoring of saproxylic fungi, based on sporocarp inventories, investigated saproxylic fungi in relation to vegetation types and management categories. Fungal species occurrence, recorded according to the presence/absence and frequency of sporocarps, was analyzed on the basis of the harvest season, of coarse woody debris decay classes as well as of other environmental and ecological variables. Two-way cluster analysis, DCA and Spearman’s rank correlations, for indirect gradient analysis, were performed to identify any patterns of seasonality and decay. Most of the species were found on CWD in an intermediate decay stage; the first DCA axis revealed the vegetational/microclimate gradient as the main driver of fungal community composition, while the second axis corresponded to a strong gradient of CWD decay classes.