Journal
FUNGAL ECOLOGY
Volume 28, Issue -, Pages 53-65Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2017.04.004
Keywords
Dispersal; Fruit body; Fungal conservation; Habitat fragmentation; Spore release; Spore size
Funding
- LUOVA graduate school
- Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation
- Maj and Tor Nessling foundation
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Life history traits are key to why species occur when and where they do and how their populations will respond to environmental changes. However, dispersal-related traits of fungi are generally poorly known. We studied how spore release height from the ground, an important determinant of airborne dispersal, is connected to other traits in polypores. We collected expert evaluations of fruit body growth sites for 140 species and found that experts generally provided consistent estimates of height above the ground. Height was correlated with other traits: species fruiting on living trees, earlier decay stages and deciduous hosts tend to fruit higher above the ground. While our data do not allow mechanistic explanations, our study demonstrates the potential of expert knowledge and identifies fruit body height above the ground as one consistent trait relevant to species' life history strategies. We recommend a more comprehensive expert survey as one cost-efficient way towards a more trait-based fungal ecology. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd and British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.
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