Myxomycetes distribution along an elevational gradient on coniferous woody debris in mountains of Central Japan

Although myxomycetes are globally distributed in terrestrial ecosystems, studies on their local distribution along the elevation gradient remain few and ambiguous. The present study was seasonally conducted by field surveys for collecting fruit bodies in five coniferous forests along elevations ranging from 679 to 2135 m in a mountainous region of Central Japan. A total of 1254 records on coniferous dead wood represented 50 taxa belonging to 21 genera. Myxomycete diversity decreased with increasing elevation and was higher in summer than in autumn. Five communities at different elevation sites were ordinated using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS). The four communities in lower elevation pine forests were associated with elevational gradient and separated from a subalpine coniferous forest community. Four species, Lamproderma columbinum, Cribraria macrocarpa, Physarum atroviolaceum, and Arcyria monticola, specifically inhabited the subalpine in the autumn. The community structure of myxomycetes revealed elevational differences that affected species inhabitation in a temperate local region of Central Japan