Subject: Re: Mycological succession after forest harvesting

From: Thomas ODell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 10 Nov 1996 09:02:56 -0800

Marc, Fisrt, my apologies for taking so long to reply. We are having a
great mushroom season right now. You are asking important questions here,
ones which have not been very well studied. The few studies of which I am
aware deal with ectomycorrhizal fungi. The work of Mason, Last and others
is from studies of exotic tree species in Great Britain (Mason, P.A. et
l., 1983. Plant and Soil 71: 247-256. ibid 1982 For. Ecol Manag. 4:
19-39.). In the Pacific Northwest, Luoma studied hypogeous fungi on a
chronosequence of Douglas fir stands (Luoma, Trappe and Frankel 1991.
Mycologia 83: 335-353. and a paper in a forest service technical report
"Wildlife and vegetation of late-successional douglas fir forests".). I
have published some early results from a longer term study (O'Dell, T.E.,
Luoma and Molina. 1992. NW Environ. J. 8: 166-8.) the five year data is
being worked up by jane smith and randy molina... We take for granted that
many species of fungi are only found fruiting in late successional forests
(most Ramaria, Amanita, Tricholoma many Cortinarius and so on). I beleive
that old stands (particularly the really ancient 300+ year ones) are more
diverse than younger ones. But the questions of whether these species have
to recolonize or can persist as vegetative mycelium but require old stands
just to fruit; which species come back soonest after disturbance, what
factors are controlling succession and many many others are wide open. 
Hope that helps, Cheers! 

 On 27 Oct 1996, Deconchat Marc wrote:

> Hello mycologists,
> I am mooking for bibliography (or adress of labs) about the effects of 
> forest  harvesting in temperate zone on fungi. Is there a succession, what
> is the evolution of diversity, etc.
> Thanks for any help.
> Please, answer by Email.
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
> !   Marc DECONCHAT               SEBSO/INRA-SAD Toulouse         !
> !   Phone:(33)61 28 53 43        BP 27, F-31326 Castanet-Tolosan ! 
> !   Fax:(33)61 73 20 77		 Email:[email-masked] !
> 
>

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 13 Nov 1996 17:27:22 GMT

Thomas ODell <[email-masked]> wrote:

>aware deal with ectomycorrhizal fungi. 
---snip---

I posed this discussion about a year ago and received no response on
this topic. I did, however, get several emails about the part of my
post where I stated that coniferous forest soils are formed by the
action of microscopic arthropods foraging on fungi growing on biomass.
I referenced the work of Dr. Moldenke at Oregon State. The
correspondants insisted that this type of interaction accounted for
such a small percentage of forest soils as to be negligible.

> the five year data is
>being worked up by jane smith and randy molina... 

I can hardly wait. I was priviledged to attend a meeting where Randy
was speaking and found him to be very interesting.

>We take for granted that

My questions are:
What effect do short term harvest cycles (30 year, 60 year, 80 year,
etc.) of coniferous forests have on the various fungi?
Do those that require an older forest die out over several
planting/harvest cycles if the tree plantings are not allowed to
mature?
How important are these fungi to the overall health of the forest
soils,  the various species of trees, other plants and animals?
How are the microscopic arthropods and various fungi that they ingest
while breaking down the biomass affected?

Perhaps each of these questions deserve their own thread but they are
interconnected (just as the fungi, soils, animals and plants in the
forest).

rexs13