Abstract
This work describes ecological aspects of tropical lignicolous myxomycetes. The occurrence of lignicolous myxomycetes was related to wood pH, hardness, water absorption capacity, diameter, decay stage, soil contact, shading and moss cover of the logs, air temperature, and precipitation. To obtain data, 61-day excursions covering five Atlantic rain forest (lowland dense ombrophilous forest) fragments were carried out in Pernambuco State, Brazil. Eighty-four logs were exhaustively analyzed, and 272 myxomycetes specimens recorded. Two multivariate analyses and two correlational approaches were used to determine the relationship between lignicolous myxomycetes distribution and both wood and meteorological variables, the results of which indicated that the pH is the most important variable affecting myxomycete occurrence, followed by the decay stage. Wood acidity limits which species can live on a specific log, and the decay stage affects a group of variables related to moisture, which are affected as decay progress. All variables measured and how they may affect the occurrence of myxomycetes species are discussed.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adamonytė G (2010) Lithuanian Stemonitales (Myxomycetes). Genera Amaurochaete and Brefeldia. Bot Lith 16(2):75–82
Boddy L, Frankland JC, West PV (2008) Ecology of saprophytic basidiomycetes. Elsevier, Oxford
Cavalier-Smith T, Fiore-Donno AM, Chao E, Kudryavtsev A, Berney C, Snell EA, Lewis R (2014) Multigene phylogeny resolves deep branching of Amebozoa. Mol Phylogenet Evol 83:293–304
Chamber JQ, Higuchi N, Schimel JP, Ferreira LV, Melack JM (2000) Decomposition and carbon cycling of dead trees in tropical forests of the central Amazon. Oecologia 122:380–388
Clausen CA (1996) Bacterial associations with decaying wood: a review. Int Biodeter Biodegr 95:101–107
Clissmann F, Fiore-Donno AM, Hoppe B, Krüger D, Kahl T, Unterseher M, Schnittler M (2015) First insight into xdead wood protistan diversity: a molecular sampling of bright-spored Myxomycetes (Amoebozoa, slime-moulds) in decaying beech logs. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 91(6) doi: 10.1093/femsec/fiv050
Costa- Junior RF, Ferreira RLC, Rodal MJN, Feliciano ALP, Marangon LC, Silva WC (2008) Estrutura fitossociológica do componente arbóreo de um fragmento de Floresta Ombrófila Densa na mata sul de Pernambuco, Nordeste do Brasil. Ciênc Florestal 18(2):173–183
Costa AAA, Bezerra ACC, Xavier de Lima V, Cavalcanti LH (2014) Diversity of myxomycetes in an environmentally protected area of Atlantic Forest in northeast Brazil. Acta Bot Bras 28(3):445–455
Eliasson U (1977) Ecological notes on Amaurochaete Rost. (Myxomycetes). Bot Notiser 129:419–25
Eliasson U (1981) Patterns of occurrence of myxomycetes in a spruce forest in South Sweden. Holartic Ecol 4:20–31
Everhart SE, Keller HW, Ely JS (2008) Influence of bark pH on the occurrence and distribution of tree canopy myxomycetes species. Mycologia 100(2):191–204
Fukasawa Y, Takahashi K, Arikawa T, Hattori T, Maekawa N (2015) Fungal wood decomposer activities influence community structures of myxomycetes and bryophytes on coarse wood debris. Fungal Ecol 14:44–52
Gray WD, Alexopoulos CJ (1968) Biology of the Myxomycetes. Ronald Press Company, New York
Greaves H (1971) The bacterial factor in wood decay. Wood Sci Technol 5:6–16
Hailmann-Claussen J (2001) A gradient analysis of communities of macrofungi and slime moulds on decaying beech logs. Mycol Res 105(5):575–596
Härkönen M (1977) Corticolous Myxomycetes in three different habitats in southern Finland. Karstenia 17:19–32
Ing B (1994) The phytosociology of myxomycetes. New Phytol 126(2):175–201
Lister A (1925) A monograph of the Mycetozoa, 3rd edn. British museum of natural history, London
Madelin MF (1984) Myxomycete data of ecological significance. Trans Br Mycol Soc 83:1–19
Martin GW, Alexopoulos CJ (1969) The Myxomycetes. University of Iowa Press, Iowa City
Mubarak Ali N, Kalyanasundaram I (1991) Amylase as an extracellular enzyme from plasmodia of myxomycetes. Mycol Res 95(7):885–896
Novozhilov YK, Schnittler M, Zemlianskaia IV, Fefelov KA (2000) Biodiversity of plasmodial slime moulds (Myxogastria): measurement and interpretation. Protistology 1(4):161–178
Ogata N, Rico-Gray V, Nestel D (1996) Abundance, richness, and diversity of myxomycetes in a neotropical forest ravine. Biotropica 28(4):627–635
Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Kindt R, Legendre P, Minchin PR, O’Hara RB, Simpson GL, Solymos P, Stevens MHH, Wagner H (2013) vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.0-6. http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan
Olive LS (1975) The Mycetozoans. Academic, New York
R Core Team (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. http://www.R-project.org
Rojas C, Schnittler M, Biffi D, Stephenson SL (2008) Microhabitat and niche separation in species of Ceratiomyxa. Mycologia 100(6):843–850
Rojas C, Stephenson SL, Huxel GR (2012) Macroecology of high-elevation myxomycete assemblages in the northern Neotropics. Mycol Prog 10(4):423–437
Rufino MUD, Cavalcanti LD (2007) Alterations in the lignicolous myxomycete biota over two decades at the Dois Irmãos Ecologic State Reserve, Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Fungal Divers 24:159–171
Schnittler M (2001) Ecology of myxomycetes of a winter-cold desert in western Kazakhstan. Mycologia 93(4):653–669
Schnittler M, Stephenson SL (2002) Inflorescences of Neotropical herbs as a newly discovered microhabitat for myxomycetes. Mycologia 94(1):6–20
Schnittler M, Unterseher M, Tesmer J (2006) Species richness and ecological characterization of myxomycetes and myxomycete-like organisms in the canopy of a temperate deciduous forest. Mycologia 98(2):223–232
Schnittler M, Unterseher M, Pfeiffer T, Novozhilov YK, Fiore-Donno AM (2010) Ecology of sandstone ravine myxomycete from Saxonian Switzerland (Germany). Nova Hedwig 90:277–302
Stephenson SL (1989) Distribution and ecology of myxomycetes in temperate forests. II. Patterns of occurrence on bark surface of living trees, leaf litter, and dung. Mycologia 81(4):608–621
Stephenson SL, Schnittler M, Lado C (2004) Ecological characterization of a tropical myxomycete assemblage—maquipucuna cloud forest reserve, Ecuador. Mycologia 96(3):488–497
Takahashi K (2010) Succession in myxomycete communities on dead Pinus densiflora wood in a secondary forest in southwestern Japan. Ecol Res 25:995–1006
Takahashi K, Hada Y (2009) Distribution of Myxomycetes on coarse woody debris of Pinus densiflora at different decay stages in secondary forests of western Japan. Mycoscience 50:253–260
Takahashi K, Hada Y (2010) Geographical distribution of myxomycetes on coniferous deadwood in relation to air temperature in Japan. Mycoscience 51:281–290
Takahashi K, Hada Y, Mitchell DW (2009) Substrate preference of lignicolous myxomycetes relative to wood types in temperate Japanese forests. Hikobia 15:287–298
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the Fundação de Amparo à Ciência e Tecnologia do Estado de Pernambuco (FACEPE) as a scholarship for the first author’s master’s degree Project, and by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) as a research grant (proc. 3059/2009-6) to the senior author. The authors are grateful to Nestor V. Powell and Leandro A.N.N. Agra of the LABMIX-UFPE team for their assistance with fieldwork.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Section Editor: Franz Oberwinkler
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Xavier de Lima, V., de Holanda Cavalcanti, L. Ecology of lignicolous myxomycetes in Brazilian Atlantic rain forest. Mycol Progress 14, 92 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-015-1115-2
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-015-1115-2