Abstract
In late November and early December of 2019, wildfires occurred over portions of the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park. More than 4,000 ha were affected by the wildfires. The objective of the
research reported herein was to access the impact of these wildfires on the assemblages of wood-decay
fungi associated with the study areas in the park.
Methods: The investigated fungi were confined to two study areas; the first subjected to a relatively high intensity
burn and the second subjected to a relatively low intensity burn. In addition to specimens of fungi obtained in
the field, small pieces of coarse woody debris were assembled, brought back to the laboratory and placed in
plastic chambers for incubation and kept moist. Over the course of two months, fruiting bodies appearing in
these incubation chambers were observed and collected. All specimens from both the field and incubation
chambers were identified from sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the ribosomal DNA.
Results: A total of 31 different taxa were identified along with nine taxa reported previously as unknown and
uncultured. However, almost all of these records were from the study area subjected to the relatively low intensity
burn.
Conclusion: The relatively high intensity burn site was almost completely devoid of wood-decay fungi.
Nawaf I. Ibrahim, Abdel Moneim E. Sulieman, Sami Hannachi, Steven L. Stevenson. (2020-2021) The effect of wildfires on wood-decay fungi in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Advancements in Life Sciences, Volume-8, Issue-1.
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