A preliminary study of wood-decay fungi in forests of northwest Arkansas

Abstract

The present study represented an effort to characterize the assemblage of wood-decay fungi associated with forest ecosystems in northwest Arkansas. Specimens of fungi were collected from two different study areas. These were Pea Ridge National Military Park and Devil's Den State Park. In addition, small pieces of coarse woody debris (usually dead branches) were collected in the two study areas, returned to the laboratory and placed in plastic incubation chambers to which water was added. Fruiting bodies appearing in these chambers over a period of several months were collected and handled in the same manner as specimens on decaying wood obtained in the field. All specimens were identified through sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) ribosomal DNA region. A total of 111 taxa were recorded, the majority of which could be identified to species. Seventy-seven taxa were recorded as field collections, whereas 34 taxa were recorded from the incubation chambers. Surprisingly, the two sets of data did not share any examples in common.