Quelle est la place des champignons supérieurs dans les stations forestières? | What is the status of higher fungi in forest site classification?

Abstract

17 forest sites in three Swiss cantons (Berne, Solothurn, Fribourg)were investigated mycologically during a four year period to find out to what extent higher fungi are bound to specific forest sites and whether they are suitable for characterizing forest types. The species lists reveal a species specific dependency on soil pH: 32% of the inventorized fungal species can be found in the whole pH range, 50% were found only in acid soils up to a pH of 5.75, and 18% in only neutral to alkaline soils. The species fructifying on slightly acid to neutral soils are considered to be possible indicator species for such environmental changes as acidification or eutrophisation. The present classification of higher fungi into pH-classes and forest types is a tentative one. The data set will be supplemented with further observations in order to attain a more definitive classification. These preliminary analyses, however, already reveal the suitability of higher fungi for characterizing and classifying forest types. The four-year investigation showed that pure coniferous forests are richer in macromycetes species than generally supposed and also that they harbour a higher percentage of mycorrhizal fungi than deciduous forests.