Abstract
Myxomycete research in China is mostly focused on abundance-based diversity assessments of natural habitats, or species checklists of local regions, but studies of myxomycete diversity over broad geographical scales are limited. This study reports diversity from four mountainous areas in central China based on a total of 3212 specimens representing 155 species of 38 genera. The most abundant species were Arcyria cinerea, Colloderma oculatum, and Clastoderma debaryanum. Species richness and Shannon-Wiener diversity were significantly different among the study areas, with highest values found for the Tiantangzhai Forest Park for specimens from moist chamber culture and Houhe Reserve from field collections. Species richness and diversity in mixed broadleaf-conifer forests were higher than in broadleaf and coniferous forests. Myxomycetes on substrates cultivated in moist chamber cultures had a more comparable species composition, implying that some species show a higher fruiting propensity in such culture than others. There were significant differences in myxomycete communities of various substrates between study areas and forest types, with the former explaining a higher part of the variation. This first exploration on a large spatial scale in China suggested that the effects of geographical separation on myxomycete communities were greater than separation in forest types.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information file).
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Acknowledgements
We are sincerely grateful to Martin Schnittler (University of Greifswald, Germany), for his valuable suggestions and careful corrections. We greatly appreciate the substantial support of Houhe National Nature Reserve, Tiantangzhai National Forest Park, and Baotianman National Nature Reserve of China. We thank the Shennongjia Fungal Lichen Expedition Team of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for their great work.
Funding
This study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (32070007 and 31470143), the Project for Fundamental Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2019FY101808), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.
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Shuanglin Chen and Shuzhen Yan conceived and designed the experiments. Min Li, Yang Gao, and Gaowei Wang performed the experiments. Min Li and Lei Yao analyzed the data. Min Li wrote the manuscript; other authors provided editorial advice.
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Supplementary figures. (DOCX 646 kb)
Online Resources 2
The records and distributions of myxomycete species in four study areas and multiple substrates in central China. (XLSX 24 kb)
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Statistical calculation results related to myxomycete communities. (XLSX 17.3 kb)
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Li, M., Gao, Y., Yao, L. et al. Distribution characteristics of myxomycetes among substrates, study areas, and forest types in central China. Mycol Progress 21, 88 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-022-01835-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11557-022-01835-8