PARENT SESSION
Poster Session # 10: Soil Ecology.
Tuesday, August 5 Presentation from 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM. SITCC Exhibit Hall B.
Fungal decomposers of fine roots.
Costello, Andria*,1, Fisk, Melany2, Otz, Ines1, Fahey, Tim3, 1 Syracyuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA2 Appalachian State University, Boone, NC, USA3 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA
ABSTRACT- Fine root turnover is a large input of carbon to forest ecosystem detrital systems, yet the identity of organisms responsible for decay is largely unknown. We explored the species composition of fungi (basidiomycetes and ascomycetes) on decaying roots (0.2 - 0.3 mm diameter) of sugar maple, yellow birch, and American beech in a northern hardwood forest in New Hampshire. We detected from 1 - 10 fungal species on individual dead fine roots, using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (t-RFLP) analysis. Taxa were not consistently abundant across all dead roots samples. Some species were abundant on 50% or more of root samples, but overall there was high variability among roots in the numbers and species of decomposers. The fine root substrate appears to support a spatially heterogenous fungal communitiy, which may contribute to widely varying decay rates that have been observed among individual fine roots.
Key words: fine roots, fungi, t-RFLP