Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Species richness of plants and fungi in western Panama: towards a fungal inventory in the tropics

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Biodiversity and Conservation Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In order to document the species richness of plants and fungi in a tropical area, a trail of 500 m in tropical lowlands in the Chiriquí province, on the Pacific side of western Panama, was sampled each month during 2 years with 2 h dedicated to plants and 2 h dedicated to fungi, each by two botanists or mycologists respectively. The 24 sampling events yielded approximately 4,000 records of plants corresponding to 311 species as well as 1,614 records of fungi corresponding to approximately 567 species. Lists of more or less certain names of plants and fungi as well as voucher specimens are provided. The randomized species accumulation curve for plants approaches an asymptote and estimators yield stable values of 310–318 predicted plant species in the area of investigation. The curve for records of fungal species, however, did not saturate and all applied estimator functions failed to predict the total richness of fungi for the area convincingly. Two plant collections correspond to new records for Panama and 54 species and infraspecific taxa are new for the Chiriquí province. The identification of fungi is still in process and yielded two species probably new to science as well as 17 new records of species for Panama to date. In order to assess biodiversity patterns (e.g. fungi to plant ratios) of tropical fungi more accurately, it is necessary to repeat such investigations in other areas and to improve the tools for taxonomic identification of these highly diverse but mostly microscopic organisms.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arnold AE, Maynard Z, Gilbert GS et al (2000) Are tropical fungal endophytes hyperdivers? Ecol Lett 3:267–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bohannan BJM, Hughes J (2003) New approaches to analyzing microbial biodiversity data. Curr Opin Microbiol 6:282–287

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Buée M, Reich M, Murat C et al (2009) 454 pyrosequencing analyses of forest soils reveal an unexpectedly high fungal diversity. New Phytol 184:449–456

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cannon PF (1999) Options and constraints in rapid diversity analysis of fungi in natural ecosystems. Fungal Divers 2:1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Cannon PF, Kirk PM, Cooper JA, Hawksworth DL (2001) Microscopic fungi. In: Hawksworth DL (ed) The changing wildlife of Great Britain and Ireland. Taylor & Francis, London, pp 114–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Cantrell SA (2004) A comparison of two sampling strategies to assess discomycete diversity in wet tropical forests. Caribbean J Sci 40:8–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Chao A (1987) Estimating the population size for capture-recapture data with unequal catchability. Biometrics 43:783–791

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chao A, Colwell RK, Lin C-W et al (2009) Sufficient sampling for asymptotic minimum species richness estimators. Ecology 90:1125–1133

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chaverri P, Vílchez B (2006) Hypocrealean (Hypocreales, Ascomycota) fungal diversity in different stages of tropical forest succession in Costa Rica. Biotropica 38:531–543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coddington JA, Agnarsson I, Miller JA et al (2009) Undersampling bias: the null hypothesis for singleton species in tropical arthropod surveys. J Anim Ecol 78:573–584

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Colwell RK, Coddington JA (1994) Estimating terrestrial biodiversity through extrapolation. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 345:101–118

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Correa MD, Galdames C, de Stapf MS (2004) Catálogo de las plantas vasculares de Panamá. Quebecor World, Bogota

    Google Scholar 

  • Gange AC, Gange EG, Sparks TH, Boddy L (2007) Rapid and recent changes in fungal fruiting patterns. Science 316:71

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gotelli NJ, Colwell RK (2001) Quantifying biodiversity: procedures and pitfalls in the measurement and comparison of species richness. Ecol Lett 4:379–391

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guevara R, Dirzo R (1998) A rapid method for the assessment of the macromycota. The fungal community of an evergreen cloud forest as an example. Can J Bot 76:596–601

    Google Scholar 

  • Guzmán G, Piepenbring M (2011) Los hongos de Panamá. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama; Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Mexico; Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, David, Panama; Ideogramma, Mexico

  • Hammel BE (2003) Dioscoreaceae. In: Hammel BE, Grayum MH, Herrera C, Zamora N (eds) Manual de plantas de Costa Rica. Vol. II. Gimnospermas y monocotiledóneas (Agavaceae-Musaceae). Monog Syst Botan 92:552–565

  • Haug I, Wubet T, Weiss M et al (2010) Species-rich but distinct arbuscular mycorrhizal communities in reforestation plots on degraded pastures and in neighboring pristine tropical mountain rain forest. Trop Ecol 51:125–148

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL (1991) The fungal dimension of biodiversity: magnitude, significance, and conservation. Mycol Res 95:641–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL (1997) Inventorying a tropical fungal biota: intensive and extensive approaches. In: Janardhanan KK, Rajendran C, Natarajan K, Hawksworth DL (eds) Tropical mycology. Science Publishers, India, pp 29–50

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL (1998) The consequences of plant extinctions for their dependent biotas an overlooked aspect of conservation science. In: Peng C-I, Lowry PP (eds) Rare, threatened, and endangered floras of Asia and the Pacific rim, vol Academia Sinica Monograph Series 16. Institute of Botany, Taipei, pp 1–15

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL (2001) The magnitude of fungal diversity: the 1.5 million species estimate revisited. Mycol Res 105:1422–1432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL (2004) Fungal diversity and its implications for genetic resource collections. Stud Mycol 50:9–18

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawksworth DL, Mueller GM (2005) Fungal communities: their diversity and distribution. In: Dighton J, White JF, Oudemans P (eds) The fungal community: its organization and role in the ecosystem, 3rd edn. Taylor & Francis, New York, pp 27–37

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hibbett DS, Ohman A, Glotzer D et al (2011) Progress in molecular and morphological taxon discovery in fungi and options for formal classification of environmental sequences. Fungal Biol Rev 25:38–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyde KD, Bussaban B, Paulus B et al (2007) Diversity of saprobic microfungi. Biodivers Conserv 16:7–35

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jumpponen A, Jones KL (2009) Massively parallel 454 sequencing indicates hyperdiverse fungal communities in temperate Quercus macrocarpa phyllosphere. New Phytol 184:438–448

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Karasch P (2005) Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Pilzflora des Fünfseenlandes V. Ökologische Pilzkartierung auf einer Huteweide im Landkreis Weilheim (Oberbayern). Z Mykol 71:85–112

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirk PM, Cannon PF, David JC, Stalpers JA (2001) Ainsworth and Bisbys dictionary of the fungi. CABI Bioscience. CAB International, Wallingford

    Google Scholar 

  • Lensing JR, Wise DH (2006) Impact of changes in rainfall amounts predicted by climate-change models on decomposition in a deciduous forest. Appl Soil Ecol 35:523–534

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lilleskov EA, Fahey TJ, Horton TR et al (2002) Belowground ectomycorrhizal community change over a nitrogen deposition gradient in Alaska. Ecology 83:104–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lodge DJ, Cantrell S (1995a) Fungal communities in wet tropical forests: variation in time and space. Can J Bot 73(Suppl 1):S1391–S1398

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lodge DJ, Cantrell S (1995b) Diversity of litter agarics at Cuyabeno, Ecuador: calibrating sampling efforts in tropical rainforest. Mycologist 9:149–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mangelsdorff R, Piepenbring M, Perdomo O Diversity of Pucciniales, and their hosts on selected sites in western Panama. Biodivers Conserv (this issue)

  • Morales JF (2003) Poaceae. In: Hammel BE, Grayum MH, Herrera C, Zamora N (eds) Manual de plantas de Costa Rica. Vol. III. Monocotiledóneas (Orchidaceae-Zingiberaceae). Monog Syst Botan 93:598–821

  • Mueller GM, Schmit JP (2007) Fungal biodiversity: what do we know? What can we predict? Biodivers Conserv 16:1–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mueller GM, Bills GF, Foster MS (eds) (2004) Biodiversity of fungi, inventory and monitoring methods. Elsevier Academic Press, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Hara RB (2005) Species richness estimators: how many species can dance on the head of a pin? J Anim Ecol 74:375–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen J, Blanchet FG, Kindt R et al (2010) Vegan: community ecology package. Ordination methods, diversity analysis, and other functions for community and vegetation ecologists. Available at http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/vegan/index.html

  • Pedrós-Alió C (2006) Marine microbial diversity: can it be determined? Trends Microbiol 14:257–263

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pegler DN (1997) The larger fungi of Borneo. Natural History Publications, Kota Kinabalu

    Google Scholar 

  • Pérez JM, Camino M (2000) Riqueza micológica en un sitio natural del Jardín Botánico Nacional. Rev Jard Bot Nac Univ Habana 21:133–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Piepenbring M (2006) Checklist of fungi in Panama. Puente Biológico (Revista Científica de la Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí) 1:1–190 + 5 plates

  • Piepenbring M (2011) Fungi of Panama. Available by STRI. http://biogeodb.stri.si.edu/fungi/. Cited 25 Aug 2011

  • Piepenbring M, Hofmann TA, Kirschner R et al (2011) Diversity patterns of Neotropical plant parasitic microfungi. Ecotropica 17:27–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Pirozynski KA (1972) Microfungi of Tanzania. I. Miscellaneous fungi on oil palm. II. New Hyphomycetes. Mycol Pap 129:1–64 + 1 plate

    Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2010) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. Available at http://cran.r-project.org

  • Rossman AY (1997) Biodiversity of tropical microfungi: an overview. In: Hyde KD (ed) Biodiversity of tropical microfungi. Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, pp 1–10

    Google Scholar 

  • Rossman AY, Tulloss RE, O’Dell TE et al (1998) Protocols for an all taxa biodiversity inventory of fungi in a Costa Rican conservation area. Parkway, Boone

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmit JP, Lodge DF (2005) Classical methods and modern analysis for studying fungal diversity. In: Dighton J, White JF, Oudemans P (eds) The fungal community: its organization and role in the ecosystem, 3rd edn. Taylor & Francis, New York, pp 193–214

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schmit JP, Mueller GM (2007) An estimate of the lower limit of global fungal diversity. Biodivers Conserv 16:99–111

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Unterseher M, Schnittler M, Dormann C et al (2008) Application of species richness estimators for the assessment of fungal diversity. FEMS Microbiol Lett 282:205–213

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Unterseher M, Jumpponen A, Öpik M et al (2011a) Species abundance distributions and richness estimations in fungal metagenomics–lessons learned from community ecology. Mol Ecol 20:275–285

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Unterseher M, Westphal B, Amelang N et al (2011b) 3,000 species and no end—species richness and community pattern of woodland macrofungi in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Mycol Progress (in press). doi:10.1007/s11557-011-0769-7

  • Van Herk CM, Aptroot A, Van Dobben HF (2002) Long-term monitoring in the Netherlands suggests that lichens respond to global warming. Lichenologist 34:141–154

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watling R (1995) Assessment of fungal diversity: macromycetes, the problems. Can J Bot 73(Suppl 1):S15–S24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watling R (2010) The hidden kingdom. In: Boddy L, Coleman M (eds) From another kingdom, the amazing world of fungi. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Edinburgh

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodson RE, Schery RW and collaborators (1943–1980) Flora of Panama. Ann Missouri Bot Gard 30–67

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank numerous students and colleagues who collaborated in the field, namely J. M. Andrade, K. Araúz, G. Bethancourt, E. Caballero, L. Cáceres, O. Cáceres, V. Carrión, S. Castillo, D. Cruz, M. Cuevas, J. Espinosa, A. Gockele, A. K. Gómez, J. González, L. González, B. Henríquez, R. Kirschner, M. Mastrolinardo, L. Mayorga, E. Miranda, N. Moran, J. de Quiel, J. Ramos, I. de Rincón, S. Rudolph, L. Saldaña, K. Samaniego, I. Samudio, G. Steinbeisser, and J. Weisenborn. For identification of plants we are grateful to R. Mangelsdorff, R. Rincón, M. Stapf, and further members of the staff of the herbarium PMA, for the identification of fungi we were supported by K. Araúz, J. Fournier, R. Kirschner, R. Lücking, O. Perdomo, H. Sipmann, T. Trampe, N. Völxen, and E. Yilmaz. We thank R. Mangelsdoff for interesting discussions and help to improve the manuscript. S. Cronje improved the English of the manuscript. The institutional support of the Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí (UNACHI), the National Authority of the Environment (ANAM, Panama), and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is acknowledged.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mycology, Biologicum, Max-von-Laue-Street 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    M. Piepenbring

  2. Universidad Autónoma de Chiriquí, 0427, David, Chiriquí, Panamá

    T. A. Hofmann

  3. Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, 17487, Greifswald, Germany

    M. Unterseher

  4. Department of Systematic Botany & Mycology, University of Marburg, 35032, Marburg, Germany

    G. Kost

Authors
  1. M. Piepenbring
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. T. A. Hofmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Unterseher
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. G. Kost
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Piepenbring.

Electronic supplementary material

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Piepenbring, M., Hofmann, T.A., Unterseher, M. et al. Species richness of plants and fungi in western Panama: towards a fungal inventory in the tropics. Biodivers Conserv 21, 2181–2193 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0213-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-011-0213-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation