Climatic predictors influences VFWD macromycetes diversity through dominant tree' ecology in beech forests in the North-Eastern Romania

Abstract

Lignicolous macromycetes plays are a vital part of forest ecosystems in Europe. They are involved in Carbon cycle, through decay processes of woody debris. Very fine woody debris (VFWD) forms an important component of this dead wood, being found in any forest in the World. Among European and Romanian forests, Fagus spp. dominating forests are the most important broadleaved ecosystems, of great biotic and abiotic complexity. The present distribution of lignicolous fungi is mainly linked to trees distribution. In the context of climate change, European beech forests will also shift in distribution, structure and composition, triggering changes in lignicolous fungal communities and diversity as well. Considering this background, VFWD lignicolous diversity might be a future beech forests climate change indicator. This will bring the necessity of assessing the main climatic factors that are influencing the lignicolous fungal diversity distribution across European beech forests in Romanian's North-East Region. In the present study, our findings confirms the fact that macroclimate have a great influence on lignicolous mycodiversity in beech forests. It seems that minimum temperature and Gams Continentality Index explains approximately 48% of the mycodiversity variation. While dropping minimum temperatures and increasing Gams CI values, the lignicolous fungal richness will rise. While minimum temperature of January might be linked to a complex ecological and phonological framework, Gams CI is a known ecological indicator for optimum habitat of beech forests, which in turn influence lignicolous diversity distribution. Those climatic variables might characterize the relation between plants-fungi-climate in the near future, as increasing atmospheric temperatures will manifest at different scales. Thereafter, VFWD mycodiversity might function as a valuable macroclimatic changing indicator.

Keywords

• European beech
• beech forests
• climatic predictors
• VFWD
• lignicolous fungi
• mycodiversity
• BIO6
• Gams Continentality Index