The biogeographical distribution of microfungi associated with three palm species from tropical and temperate habitats

Abstract

The microfungi of three palm species were investigated in their natural habitats and in habitats where the palms were cultivated outside their natural ranges. The palms that were selected differed in their habitats and ecology. Archontophoenix alexandrae is endemic to tropical rainforests in Australia, Cocos nucifera is pan‐tropical and Trachycarpus fortunei occurs in warm‐temperate China. Different assemblages of fungi were found in association with palms in temperate regions as compared to those in tropical regions. These differences were more related to climatic influences than to the hosts sampled, as few fungi were host‐species specific. The status of the hosts at the site, i.e. indigenous or introduced, and the degree of disturbance of the habitats within which the palms grew were also influential. When sampled in its natural habitat, Archontophoenix alexandrae had a distinct palmicolous mycota typical of other palms in tropical rainforests. Outside of the palm’s natural habitat, a widely different mycota were recorded that comprised tropical species of a more plurivorous nature. A similar plurivorous assemblage characterized the fungi associated with Cocos nucifera, probably due to the palm’s long history of cultivation. Similarly, plurivorous, but temperate or widespread fungi were associated with Trachycarpus fortunei, both within and outside of its natural habitat. This palm is also highly cultivated. A reduction in palm fungi associated with palms in disturbed habitats has implications for conservation of these fungi. However, it is acknowledged that the data for fungal diversity and distribution is incomplete and fragmentary.

Latitudinal, habitat and substrate distribution patterns of freshwater ascomycetes in the Florida Peninsula

“…For marine fungi studied along a wider latitudinal gradient, Hughes (1974) and Booth and Kenkel (1986) also found that temperature was an important environmental parameter in explaining the latitudinal distribution patterns of marine fungi. Similarly, Taylor et al (2000) and Fröhlich and Hyde (2000) found the palm saprobes from sites of the same latitude/longitude were more similar than sites from different latitudes. Differences in species composition observed in this study are also similar to patterns observed for other groups of organisms sampled along the temperate-subtropical ecotone of the Florida Peninsula.…”

Expressing Forest Origins in the Chemical Composition of Cooperage Oak Woods and Corresponding Wines by Using FTICR‐MS

“…This is a confirmation that the complete linkage method performs quite well in cases in which objects form naturally distinct "clumps". [39] HCA does not provide a statistical test of group dissimilarity, but external tests like the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test can be applied for this purpose. This elaboration was done with SAS version 9.1 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) with the Kolmogorov-Smirnov hypothesis that two groups of observations have identical distributions.…”

Diversity of saprobic microfungi

“…There were few fungi in common among palms from different sites, and fungal compositions on palms from different sites were less closely coherent than those from the same sites. Taylor et al (1999Taylor et al ( , 2000 have also shown variation between geographically separated communities of endophytic fungi in Trachycarpus fortunei and saprobes on other palms.…”