BIOTIC DIVERSITY OF KARELIA: CONDITIONS OF FORMATION, COMMUNITIES AND SPECIES

The monograph generalises vast data characterising the diversity of the biota in Russian Karelia. The data pool includes both materials of long-term studies, and new data collected in 1997–2000 within the Russian-Finnish project “Inventory and studies of biological diversity in Republic of Karelia”. The volume is composed of four interrelated chapters. Chapter one provides a detailed account of the climatic, geological, geomorphological, hydrological and soil conditions in which the regional biota has been forming. Chapter two describes and evaluates the diversity of forest, mire and meadow communities, and the third chapter details the terrestrial biota at the species level (vascular plants, mosses, aphyllophoroid fungi, lichens, mammals, birds, insects). A special section is devoted to the flora and fauna of aquatic ecosystems (algae, zooplankton, periphyton, macrozoobenthos, fishes). Wide use is made of various zoning approaches based on biodiversity-related criteria. Current status of the regional biota, including its diversity in protected areas, is analysed with elements of the human impact assessment. A concise glossary of the terms used is annexed. This is an unprecedentally multi-faceted review, at least for the taiga zone of European Russia. The volume offers extensive reference materials for researchers in a widest range of ecological and biological fields, including graduate and post-graduate students. The monograph is also available in Russian

The Meruliaceae of Russia. I. Bjerkandera

 This paper opens a taxonomical survey on the genera of Meruliaceae (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) presented in Russian mycobiota. All the meruliaceous fungi represent an obligate component of heterotrophic block of forest ecosystems and considerable demanded biotechnological resource. The purpose of the present elaboration is a revision of East European and North Asian material on Bjerkandera genus highlighting its species’ and intraspecific morphological variability and substrate specialization. The macroscopic descriptions are based on a study of fresh and dried specimens. The material of the herbaria of Komarov Botanical Institute (St. Petersburg, LE) and Institute of Zoology and Botany of Estonian Agricultural University (TAA) is studied. Micromorphological analysis is included the hyphal system revealing, the hyphae, basidia/basidiospores morphometry, and microchemical tests of the structures in question. The genus Bjerkandera is accepted in its original Karstenian sense, although the concepts by Pilát, Corner, Pouzar, and Zmitrovich et al. were discussed. The genus is characterized by two-layered context with rather loose tomentum and dense layer above the hymenophore, monomitic to pseudodimitic hyphal system, clamped generative hyphae, and ellipsoid-cylindrical basidiospores not staining in Cotton blue and Melzer’s reagent. Only two species, Bjerkandera adusta and B. fumosa were recognized in the genus, and a possible position of B. subsimulans and B. terebrans was discussed, too. The polymorphism of B. adusta is exhaustively presented and the form tegumentosa was epitypified and described. The polymorphism of B. fumosa is also presented, and the form flavipora was correctly published and epitypified. The relationships between two species are discussed and the key for species delimitation is presented here. Distributional patterns are presented for both species as well as their substrate range. The substrates of B. adusta and B. fumosa in old-growth arboreta of Saint Petersburg are presented.</p

Wood-inhabiting basidiomycetes as tree pathogens at the Peter the Great Botanical Garden of Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Science: their diagnostics, biology, and distribution over the park territory

One of the factors of tree and shrub species pathogenesis in park arboreta, which leads to their elimination from the collection, is their interaction with aborigine mycobiota, i.e. with pathogenic species that damage current shoots and leaves, and xylosaprotrophs that cause chronic wood decay. The authors have conducted a long-term micological monitoring at the Peter the Great Botanical Garden of Komarov Botanical Institute RAS and identified 17 species of basidiomycetes - wood-inhabiting tree pathogens: Armillaria lutea, Cerioporus squamosus, C. varius, Chondrostereum purpureum, Climacodon septentrionalis, Fomes fomentarius, Ganoderma applanatum, Grifola frondosa, Inonotus obliquus, Laetiporus sulphureus, Oxyporus populinus, Phaeolus schweinitzii, Phellinopsis conchata, Phellinus alni, Porodaedalea niemelaei, Stereum rugosum, Vuillemnina comedens. The present paper is devoted to a description of their morphology, biology and distribution patterns

Frostу craсks and basidiomycetes – causal agents of chronical decayings at the Peter the Great Botanical Garden

During two years of investigation (2016-2017), frostу craсks at Arboretum of the Peter the Great Botanical Garden (Saint-Petersburg, Russia) were identified in 383 trees of 82 taxa of 32 genera of 19 families, including 16 trees of 13 taxa of 6 genera of 3 families in gymnospermous trees and 367 trees of 69 taxa of 26 genera of 16 families in angiospermous trees. More often they may be found in Acer platanoides L. – 129 and Quercus robur L. – 76 specimen (both are species of native flora), representatives of families Aceraceae and Fagaceae dominate. The conifers are much more hardy to frostу craсks and these injuries usually heal without visible cracks, decyings or holes. Pathogenic mycobiota comprises 15 key basidiomycetes species. Frostу craсks promote trees infection by pathogenic fungi, provoking stem rots, stir up hollows of trunks, shorten their life or sometimes even cause their death. There is no clear relationship between winter hardiness of trees and frosty cracks. Constant and uninterrupted monitoring of arboreal plants is required to have timely and adequate answers for challenges of time, in conditions of climate changes