An Assessment of the Diversity of Fungi in Irish Woodlands

Fungi are one of the most numerous groups of organisms. It has been estimated that there are over 1.5 million species living on earth, but only approximately 5% (70,000) of these species have been described. The greatest diversity of fungi is generally found in forest habitats. Ireland currently has near 10% (\u3e650,000 ha) of its land use devoted to forestry. With this set to increase to 17% (1.2 million ha) by 2030 research on forest ecosystems is needed to create guidelines for forester planners to protect Ireland’s biodiversity and threatened native species, including fungi. This study examined fungal species and functional diversity in 26 woodland sites in Ireland. These comprised 5 oak, 5 ash, 5 Scot’s pine and 11 Sitka spruce sites. The Sitka spruce sites are split into two groups, first rotation and second rotation. Permanent plots were established at each site. Quantitative data on fungal species diversity, fruitbody abundance, deadwood quantities, and soil characteristics was collected from the permanent plots, and semi-quantitative data on species diversity were collected from outside the plots. In total, 335 species of fungi were collected and identified. Sitka spruce was found to have the highest total number of species with 278, this was followed by Oak with 188 species, Scots pine with 95 species and ash with 68 species. We did not find any significant differences between the total numbers of species in the different forest types. In the 2007 sampling period we found 222 species while in 2008 we found 223 species. There were 104 species common to both years. In almost all of the sites surveyed there was a higher mean number of species in 2008 than in 2007. This shows the highly sporadic fruiting patterns of fungi, which have been shown to be affected by weather and seasonal changes