Abstract
Desert truffles are edible hypogenous fungi that are very well adapted to conditions of aridity in arid and semi-arid regions. This study aims to highlight the influence of climatic factors on the productivity of desert truffles under hyper-arid climatic conditions of the Sahara Desert in Algeria, with assumptions that the more varying climatic factors, mainly rainfall, are more crucial for the development and production of desert truffles. At seven separate sites, desert truffles were collected by systematic sampling between 2006 and 2012. The effects of climate parameters of each site on the productivities (g/ha/year) of desert truffle species were tested using generalized linear models (GLMs). The annual mean of the total production recorded for all three harvested species (Terfezia arenaria, Terfezia claveryi, and Tirmania nivea) was 785.43 ± 743.39 g/ha. Tirmania nivea was commonly present over the sampled sites with an occurrence of 70 ± 10.1 %. GLMs revealed that total and specific productivities were closely positively related to autumnal precipitations occurring during October–December, which is the critical pre-breeding period for both desert truffles and host plant species. The other climatic parameters have statistically no effect on the annual variation of desert truffle productivity.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Al-Delaimy KS, Ali SH (1970) Storage, spoiled and proximate food composition of Iraqi truffles. Berj Trop Subtrop Ianstwirt Tropen Med 88:77–81
Al-Naama NM, Ewaze JO, Nema JH (1988) Chemical constituents of Iraqi truffles. Iraqi J Agric Sci 6:51–56
Al-Rahmah AN (2001) Truffle of deserts and jungles. University publications, King Saud (in Arabic)
Alsheikh AM (1994) Taxonomy and mycorrhizal ecology of the desert truffles in the genus Terfezia. PhD thesis, Oregon State University
Alsheikh AM, Trappe JM (1983) Desert truffles: the genus Tirmania. Trans Br Mycol Soc 81:83–90. doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(83)80207-1
Awameh MS, Alsheikh A (1979) Laboratory and field study of four kinds of truffle (kamah), Terfezia and Tirmania species, for cultivation. Mush Sci 10:507–517
Bagnouls F, Gaussen H (1957) Les climats biologiques et leur classification. Ann Geophys 66:193–220
Bawadekji A, Gargano ML, Saitta A, Venturella G (2012) A new record of the desert truffle Picoa lefebvrei in Saudi Arabia. Mycotaxon 122:243–247. doi:10.5248/122.243
Bokhary HA, Suleiman AAA, Basalah MO (1989) The fatty acid components of the desert truffle Al Kamah of Saudi Arabia. J Food Protect 52:668–669
Bokhary MA, Parvez S (1988) Desert truffle “Al-Kamah” of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 2. Additional contribution. Arab Gulf J Sci Res Agric Biol Sci B 6:103–112
Bradai L (2006) Contribution à l’étude bioécologique de la truffe blanche de désert (Tiramania sp.) : Cas de la région de Oued Mya (Ouargla). Dissertation, University of Ouargla, Algeria
Bradai L, Bissati S, Chenchouni H (2013) Etude mycologique et bio-écologique de la truffe blanche du désert (Tirmania nivea Desf. Trappe 1971) dans la région de Oued M’ya (Ouargla, Sahara algérien). Rev Bioressources 3:6–14
Bradai L, Bissati S, Chenchouni H (2014) Desert truffles of the north Algerian Sahara: diversity and bioecology. Emirates J Food Agric 26(5):429–439. doi:10.9755/ejfa.v26i5.16520
Chafi MEH, Fortas Z, Bensoltane A (2004) Bioclimatic survey of the terfez zones of the south west of Algeria and an essay of the inoculation of Pinus halepensis Mill. With Tirmania pinoyi. Egypt J Appl Sci 19:88–100
Chambers JM (1992) Linear models. In: Chambers JM, Hastie TJ (eds) Statistical models. S. Wadsworth & Brooks/Cole, Pacific Grove, Chapter 4
Chang ST (1980) Mushrooms as human food. Bioscience 30:399–401
Chapin FS III, Zavaleta ES, Eviner VT et al (2000) Consequences of changing biodiversity. Nature 405:234–242. doi:10.1038/35012241
Chenchouni H (2012) Diversity assessment of vertebrate fauna in a wetland of hot hyperarid lands. Arid Ecosyst 2:253–263. doi:10.1134/S2079096113010022
De Martonne E (1925) Traité de Géographie Physique: 3 tomes. Paris
Dib-Bellahouel S, Fortas Z (2011) Antibacterial activity of various fractions of ethyl acetate extract from the desert truffle, Tirmania pinoyi, preliminarily analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Afr J Biotechnol 10:9694–9699. doi:10.5897/AJB10.2687
Feeney J (2002) Desert truffles galore. Saudi Aramco World, September/October, pp 22–27
Ferdman Y, Aviram S, Roth-Bejerano N, Trappe JM, Kagan-Zur V (2005) Phylogenetic studies of Terfezia pfeilii and Choiromyces echinulatus (Pezizales) support new genera for southern African truffles: Kalaharituber and Eremiomyces. Mycol Res 109:237–245. doi:10.1017/S0953756204001789
Fox J (2005) Getting started with the R commander: a basic-statistics graphical user interface to R. J Stat Softw 14:1–42
Gorczyński L (1920) Sur le calcul du degré du continentalisme et son application dans la climatologie. Geogr Ann 2:324–331
Goudie A (2002) Great warm deserts of the world: landscapes and evolution (vol. 1). Oxford University Press
Grieser J, Gommes R, Bernardi M (2006) New LocClim—the local climate estimator of FAO. In Geophysical Research Abstracts, vol 8, No 08305: p 2
Harris FM, Mohammed S (2003) Relying on nature: wild foods in northern Nigeria. Ambio 1:24–29. doi:10.1579/0044-7447-32.1.24
Jamali S, Banihashemi Z (2012) Fungi associated with ascocarps of desert truffles from different parts of Iran. J Crop Prot 1:41–47
Kagan-Zur V, Akyuz M (2014) Asian Mediterranean desert truffles. In: Roth-Bejerano N, Sitrit Y, Morte A, Kagan-Zur V (eds) Desert truffles. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 159–171. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40096-4_11
Kagan-Zur V, Roth-Bejerano N (2008) Desert truffles. Fungi 1:32–37
Khabar L, Najim L, Janex-Favre MC, Parguey-Leduc A (1994) L’ascocarpe de Terfezia leonis Tul. (Discomycètes, Tubérales). Cryptogam Mycol 15:187–206
Khabar L, Najim L, Janex-Favre MC, Parguey-Leduc A (2001) Contribution à l’étude de la flore mycologique du Maroc. Les truffes marocaines (Discomycètes). Bull Trimest Soc Mycol Fr 117:213–229
Laity JJ (2009) Deserts and desert environments. John Wiley & Sons
Le Houérou HN (1990) Définition et limites bioclimatiques du Sahara. Sécheresse 1:246–259
Le Tacon F, Marçais B, Courvoisier M, Murat C, Montpied P, Becker M (2014) Climatic variations explain annual fluctuations in French Périgord black truffle wholesale markets but do not explain the decrease in black truffle production over the last 48 years. Mycorrhiza 24:115–125. doi:10.1007/s00572-014-0568-5
Lieth H (1975) Modeling the primary productivity of the world. In: Lieth H, Whittaker RH (eds) Primary productivity of the biosphere. Springer, Heidelberg Berlin, Germany, pp 237–263. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-80913-2_12
Mandeel QA, Al-Laith AAA (2007) Ethnomycological aspects of the desert truffle among native Bahraini and non-Bahraini peoples of the Kingdom of Bahrain. J Ethnopharmacol 110:118–129. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.09.014
Morte A, Honrubia M, Gutiérrez A (2008) Biotechnology and cultivation of desert truffles. In: Varma A (ed). Mycorrhiza. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp 467–483. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-78826-3_23
Morte A, Lovisolo C, Schubert A (2000) Effect of drought stress on growth and water relations of the mycorrhizal association Helianthemum almeriense-Terfezia claveryi. Mycorrhiza 10:115–119. doi:10.1007/s005720000066
Morte A, Navarro-Ródenas A, Nicolás E (2010) Physiological parameters of desert truffle mycorrhizal Helianthemun almeriense plants cultivated in orchards under water deficit conditions. Symbiosis 52:133–139. doi:10.1007/s13199-010-0080-4
Morte A, Zamora M, Gutiérrez A, Honrubia M (2009) Desert truffle cultivation in semiarid Mediterranean areas. In: Azcón-Aguilar C, Barea JM, Gianinazzi S, Gianinazzi-Pearson V (Eds.). Mycorrhizas: functional processes and ecological impact. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. pp 221–233. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-87978-7_15
Peel MC, Finlayson BL, McMahon TA (2007) Updated world map of the Köppen-Geiger climate classification. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci Discuss 4:439–473. doi:10.5194/hessd-4-439-2007
R Development Core Team (2014) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Available at: http://www.R-project.org/
Sitrit Y, Roth-Bejerano N, Kagan-Zur V, Turgeman T (2014) Pre-symbiotic interactions between the desert truffle Terfezia boudieri and its host plant Helianthemum sessiliflorum. In Desert truffles (pp. 81-92). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40096-4_6
Trappe JM (1979) The orders, families, and genera of hypogeous Ascomycotina (truffles and their relatives). Mycotaxon 9:297–340
Trappe JM, Claridge AW, Arora D, Smit WA (2008a) Desert truffles of the African Kalahari: ecology, ethnomycology, and taxonomy. Econ Bot 62:521–529. doi:10.1007/s12231-008-9027-6
Trappe JM, Claridge AW, Claridge DL, Liddle L (2008b) Desert truffles of the Australian outback: ecology, ethnomycology, and taxonomy. Econ Bot 62:497–506. doi:10.1007/s12231-008-9041-8
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bradai, L., Bissati, S., Chenchouni, H. et al. Effects of climate on the productivity of desert truffles beneath hyper-arid conditions. Int J Biometeorol 59, 907–915 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0891-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-014-0891-8