Fungal herbarium EAA in Tartu (Estonia)

Fully databased Mycological Herbarium of the Phytopathological Research Station of the Tartu University (Estonia) was founded together with the Station by Prof. Fedor Bucholtz in 1922. According to the PlutoF database, 1 January 2011 in the herbarium EAA there were 23,406 fungal specimens including 8,017 mainly microfungi collected in Estonia. Most of the Estonian specimens were collected by Elmar Lepik, the Head of the Phytopathological Station from 1929–1944 (4,447 specimens).

Phellinus laevigatus s. l. (Hymenochaetales): a ring species

Phellinus laevigatus s. l. has evolved as a ring species, which was distributed in Paleocene from the eastern part of Asia via North America to Europe and further to West Siberia. As a result of clinal variation of basidiospores, three allopatric taxa in two species evolved. Of the two species (European–West Siberian Ph. laevigatus s. str. and Ph. betulinus (Murrill) Parmasto, comb. nova), latter is composed of two subspecies (ssp. betulinus and ssp. orienticus Parmasto ssp. nova), one distributed in North America and the other in East Asia.

Bibliography of biological (mainly mycological) publications by Erast Parmasto

The present bibliography lists scientific and scientific-popular publications by Erast Par- masto from the period 1953–2012, focusing on fungal diversity in Estonia and other countries; on fungal systematics, including principles and methods of studying fungi; on nature conser- vation issues in regard to fungi; and on methodology and science policy and methodology.

Mycological collections of Fedor (Theodor) Bucholtz

The well-known taxonomist of hypogeous fungi Fedor Bucholtz (29 Oct 1872 – 30 April 1924) was born in Warsaw; after studies in Moscow University (1891–1895) he was a professor of botany in Riga Polytechnic Institute (1897–1919) and Tartu University. The rich herbarium of fungi collected by him was partly destroyed during World War I or lost when evacuated to Russia; it partly found a new home in the Farlow Herbarium of the Harvard University in the USA. In the Herbarium EAA of the Estonian University of Life Sciences (Tartu, Estonia) there are 2419 specimens collected by him. In 2010, among old unordered collections of microfungi about 650 specimens, collected possibly by Bucholtz were found in the herbarium TAAM in Tartu. There are 457 specimens (383 species) in tiny envelopes of similar size and paper. This is possibly Bucholtz ́s collection of reference specimens (assembled from larger samples of identified species) he kept with him during his enforced travels. A list of this collection is appended to this paper.

Clavariachaetaceae, a family of neotropical Hymenochaetales (Basidiomycota) including clavarioid, pileate and resupinate species

Family Clavariachaetaceae (Basidiomycota, Hymenochaetales), two its genera Clavariachaete and Dichochaete, and all four very rare species distributed in South America are described.

Biosüstemaatika teooria ja meetodid : lühiõpik

Kopeerimine ja printimine lubatudhttp://tartu.ester.ee/record=b1011706~S1*es

PlutoF—a Web Based Workbench for Ecological and Taxonomic Research, with an Online Implementation for Fungal ITS Sequences

DNA sequences accumulating in the International Nucleotide Sequence Databases (INSD) form a rich source of information for taxonomic and ecological meta-analyses. However, these databases include many erroneous entries, and the data itself is poorly annotated with metadata, making it difficult to target and extract entries of interest with any degree of precision. Here we describe the web-based workbench PlutoF, which is designed to bridge the gap between the needs of contemporary research in biology and the existing software resources and databases. Built on a relational database, PlutoF allows remote-access rapid submission, retrieval, and analysis of study, specimen, and sequence data in INSD as well as for private datasets though web-based thin clients. In contrast to INSD, PlutoF supports internationally standardized terminology to allow very specific annotation and linking of interacting specimens and species. The sequence analysis module is optimized for identification and analysis of environmental ITS sequences of fungi, but it can be modified to operate on any genetic marker and group of organisms. The workbench is available at http://plutof.ut.ee

Aquatic Hyphomycete Species Are Screened by the Hyporheic Zone of Woodland Streams

Aquatic hyphomycetes strongly contribute to organic matter dynamics in streams, but their abilities to colonize leaf litter buried in streambed sediments remain unexplored. Here, we conducted field and laboratory experiments (slow-filtration columns and stream-simulating microcosms) to test the following hypotheses: (i) that the hyporheic habitat acting as a physical sieve for spores filters out unsuccessful strategists from a potential species pool, (ii) that decreased pore size in sediments reduces species dispersal efficiency in the interstitial water, and (iii) that the physicochemical conditions prevailing in the hyporheic habitat will influence fungal community structure. Our field study showed that spore abundance and species diversity were consistently re- duced in the interstitial water compared with surface water within three differing streams. Significant differences occurred among aquatic hyphomycetes, with dispersal efficiency of filiform-spore species being much higher than those with compact or branched/tetraradiate spores. This pattern was remarkably consistent with those found in laboratory experiments that tested the influence of sediment pore size on spore dispersal in microcosms. Furthermore, leaves inoculated in a stream and incubated in slow-filtration columns exhibited a fungal assemblage dominated by only two species, while five species were codominant on leaves from the stream-simulating microcosms. Results of this study highlight that the hyporheic zone exerts two types of selec- tion pressure on the aquatic hyphomycete community, a physiological stress and a physical screening of the benthic spore pool, both leading to drastic changes in the structure of fungal community

Spore sensitivity to sunlight and freezing can restrict dispersal in wood-decay fungi

Assessment of the costs and benefits of dispersal is central to understanding species' life-history strategies as well as explaining and predicting spatial population dynamics in the changing world. While mortality during active movement has received much attention, few have studied the costs of passive movement such as the airborne transport of fungal spores. Here, we examine the potential of extreme environmental conditions to cause dispersal mortality in wood-decay fungi. These fungi play a key role as decomposers and habitat creators in forest ecosystems and the populations of many species have declined due to habitat loss and fragmentation. We measured the effect of simulated solar radiation (including ultraviolet A and B) and freezing at -25 degrees C on the spore germinability of 17 species. Both treatments but especially sunlight markedly reduced spore germinability in most species, and species with thin-walled spores were particularly light sensitive. Extrapolating the species' laboratory responses to natural irradiance conditions, we predict that sunlight is a relevant source of dispersal mortality at least at larger spatial scales. In addition, we found a positive effect of spore size on spore germinability, suggesting a trade-off between dispersal distance and establishment. We conclude that freezing and particularly sunlight can be important sources of dispersal mortality in wood-decay fungi which can make it difficult for some species to colonize isolated habitat patches and habitat edges.Peer reviewe

Unravelling Soil Fungal Communities from Different Mediterranean Land-Use Backgrounds

Fungi strongly influence ecosystem structure and functioning, playing a key role in many ecological services as decomposers, plant mutualists and pathogens. The Mediterranean area is a biodiversity hotspot that is increasingly threatened by intense land use. Therefore, to achieve a balance between conservation and human development, a better understanding of the impact of land use on the underlying fungal communities is needed.We used parallel pyrosequencing of the nuclear ribosomal ITS regions to characterize the fungal communities in five soils subjected to different anthropogenic impact in a typical Mediterranean landscape: a natural cork-oak forest, a pasture, a managed meadow, and two vineyards. Marked differences in the distribution of taxon assemblages among the different sites and communities were found. Data analyses consistently indicated a sharp distinction of the fungal community of the cork oak forest soil from those described in the other soils. Each soil showed features of the fungal assemblages retrieved which can be easily related to the above-ground settings: ectomycorrhizal phylotypes were numerous in natural sites covered by trees, but were nearly completely missing from the anthropogenic and grass-covered sites; similarly, coprophilous fungi were common in grazed sites.Data suggest that investigation on the below-ground fungal community may provide useful elements on the above-ground features such as vegetation coverage and agronomic procedures, allowing to assess the cost of anthropogenic land use to hidden diversity in soil. Datasets provided in this study may contribute to future searches for fungal bio-indicators as biodiversity markers of a specific site or a land-use degree