Rasgos funcionales reproductivos de la comunidad de hongos xilófagos en un bosque montano bajo

Abstract

Fungi are some of the most diverse organisms on the planet, this variety is reflected on both their taxonomic as well as functional traits. Because of their important role in multiple ecosystem dynamics, ecological functions, and biosphere regulation, such as global biogeochemical cycle regulation, carbon exchange, ecosystem nutrient mineralization and organic matter decomposition, it’s important to understand how biotic and abiotic interactions affect their behavior and, furthermore, their reproduction. Recently, mycologists have opted to carry out research centered on functional traits and fungi behavior as to stablish correlations to identify the types of life strategies and hypothesize the possible impacts that climate change might have in community assembly. Because of this, this study’s main objective is to identify the behavior of reproductive functional traits of fungi located in a premontane rain forest. This could help establish hypotheses regarding the possible impact climate change might have on fungal assemblies in the tropics, mainly in Colombia. To this end, an opportunistic sampling was carried out at the Estación Experimental José Celestino Mutis, in which 70 fruiting bodies and the wood they were found on were collected. The fertile fruiting bodies were used to measure functional traits such as fruiting body type, carbon-nitrogen amount, spore volume, among others. It was found that annual fungi, mostly represented by the Agaricales order, showed acquisitive life strategies, while perennial fungi, associated with the Polyporales order, is only stress tolerant. In the case of Xylariales, they showed a behavior more associated with stress tolerance, although the persistence of their fruiting bodies varied between annual and perennial. On the other hand, melanized spores, found distributed equally in both perennial and annual groups, showed traits related to abiotic stress resistance, while hyaline spores, with less volume and thin walls, might reflect a high-yield strategy