Succession of beetles (genusCis) and oribatid mites (genusCarabodes) in dead sporocarps of the red-banded polypore fungusFomitopsis pinicola

The role of bracket fungi in creating alpha diversity of invertebrates in the Białowieża National Park, Poland

“…Sporocarps of polypore fungi represent well-defined, patchy, and temporary habitats, which have long-fascinated ecologists and biodiversity researchers (Hågvar & Steen, 2013). They may be termed biological hotspots, supporting high numbers of species within small volumes (Komonen, 2003).…”

“…Invertebrates are an important group of organisms found in decaying wood and fruiting bodies of wood-decaying fungi-this group is particularly interesting since many species choose to only colonize such insufficiently studied microhabitats (Gwiazdowicz, 2002;Makarova, 2002;O'Connell & Bolger, 1997a;Pielou & Verma, 1968). To date, studies have been undertaken to investigate various groups of invertebrates found in fruiting bodies of bracket fungi such as insects (e.g., Jonsell & Nordlander, 2004;Komonen, 2001), spiders (e.g., Ackerman & Shenefelt, 1973;, or mites (e.g., Gwiazdowicz & Łakomy, 2002;Hågvar & Steen, 2013).…”

Oribatid mite communities on the bark of dead wood vary with log type, surrounding forest and regional factors

“…Most oribatid mite species are fungal feeders (see below), and Schneider and Maraun (2005) demonstrated that preferences of oribatid mite species for fungal species as food differ. Additionally, juveniles of the genus Carabodes are associated with basidiomycete fungi growing on dead wood (Maraun et al, 2014;Hågvar and Steen, 2013). This suggests that fungal species consumed by species such as L. humerata are more abundant on beech logs whereas fungal species that are used by Carabodes species, especially Basidiomycetes, are more abundant on oak logs.…”

Oribatid mite communities in mountain scree: stable isotopes (15N, 13C) reveal three trophic levels of exclusively sexual species

“…Their high stable isotope signatures and their occurrence in resource-poor habitats such as caves indicates that these species are able to cope with extremely resource poor conditions and feed on the few resources present in mountain scree or caves (Mock et al 2005 ). Very likely, their main food resources are fungi (Hågvar and Steen 2013 ; Hågvar et al 2014 ). This is also supported by other stable isotope studies which found these species to be mainly secondary decomposers feeding on fungi (Fischer et al 2010 ; Maraun et al 2011 ; Erdmann et al 2012 ; Bluhm et al 2015 ; Maaß et al 2015 ).…”