Decay fungi associated with cavity excavation by a large South American woodpecker

POZZI, C.; RAJCHENBERG, M. ; OJEDA, V. (AUTORA CORRESPONDENCIA)

FOREST PATHOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020 vol. 50

1437-4781

AUTOR DE CORRESPONDENCIA.In temperate systems of the Northern Hemisphere, wood-decay fungi are known tofacilitate cavity excavation by woodpeckers. For South America, woodpecker?fungiinteractions have not been explored. The aim of this work was to identify wooddecayfungi associated with the process of cavity excavation by the Magellanicwoodpecker (Campephilus magellanicus), a large South American picid that excavateson living trees. The survey was conducted in old-growth Nothofagus pumilio forestsof Patagonia. For freshly excavated cavities, wood condition was assessed, adjacentbasidiocarps were collected, and fungal cultures were obtained from wood samplestaken to the laboratory. All cavities exhibited softened wood. Four Agaricomycotinawere isolated in cultures: Stereum hirsutum was the most frequent, followed by Postiapelliculosa, Nothophellinus andinopatagonicus and Aurantiporus albidus. Basidiocarpsaround cavities were of two species that did not develop in cultures: Laetiporusportentosus and Macrohyporia dictyopora. Excavations were slightly more frequentin white rot colonized than brown rot colonized wood, but this may be an artefactof differential success in fungal isolation and culturing, since several cavities thatshowed visual symptoms of brown wood rots did not yield mycelia of those wooddecayfungi. As shown by research elsewhere, basidiocarps underestimated heart roton cavity walls and revealed additional wood-decay species living on the same trees;therefore, assessments of fungal diversity in substrates used for cavity excavationshould be based on culturing and/or DNA extraction. Because fungal communitiesin the southern Andes are poorly known, decay fungi and their roles in ecosystemdevelopment should be studied across different forest areas, where samples fromnon-cavity-bearing (control) trees should also be taken in order to determine excavation-site selection.