scholarly journals Exploratory Sampling of Spalting Fungi in the Southern Peruvian Amazon Forest

Challenges ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Sarath M. Vega Gutierrez ◽  
Javier F. Illescas Guevara ◽  
Claudia C. Andersen ◽  
Jose Koechlin von Stein ◽  
Seri C. Robinson

Most of the research related to Peruvian Amazon fungi is focused on edible mushrooms and pathogens. Other important fungi, such as the spalting type (decay fungi that pigment wood internally), are not broadly studied, as most of them do not produce fruiting bodies and can be difficult to locate. Spalting fungi, however, are of broad economic importance due to their ability to produce pigments that enhance wood aesthetics, resulting in an increased economic value. In order to begin understanding the diversity of spalting fungi within certain regions of the Amazon, a sampling of downed trees and branches (through the opening of the xylem to identify potential pigmenting and zone line producing fungi) was done in the district of Las Piedras, Madre de Dios, Peru. Fungi suspected of causing internal pigment and zone lines were collected, cultured, isolated, and sequenced. The species found belonged to the orders Helotiales, Xylariales, Hypocreales, Russulales, Polyporales, Botryosphaeriales and two specimens of the class Leotiomycetes. The fungi collected produced pigments or zone lines in wild conditions and all of them were capable of wood decomposition. Interestingly, these are the same orders and genera as North American spalting fungi, which may indicate a correlation within species that pigment wood. The results obtained start a specific database of spalted fungi in the Amazon and, with it, help support an effort to increase the forest value of ecosystems primarily used for a few high-valued tree species.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger Chambi-Legoas ◽  
Daigard Ricardo Ortega Rodriguez ◽  
Francisco de Marques de Figueiredo ◽  
Joel Peña Valdeiglesias ◽  
Percy Amílcar Zevallos Pollito ◽  
...  

Context: Gold mining is the most destructive activity in the natural forests of the Madre de Dios region in the southeastern Peruvian Amazon. Understanding the natural regeneration process of these degraded areas is necessary to develop forest restoration projects in such conditions.Aims: We aimed to evaluate forest recovery and identify the successional and structure patterns of vegetation governing natural regeneration over time.Methods: Structure, composition, richness, diversity, and successional status were evaluated in abandoned artisanal gold mine areas in Madre de Dios, southeastern Peru. Vegetation data were recorded in 61 plots of 250 m2 established in five sites varying from 1 to 19 years of abandonment. Vegetation in abandoned areas was compared with six undisturbed forests evaluated in previous inventories.Results: In the mining lands, tree density and basal area recovered quickly, while species richness and composition were slow. Forest recovery is an initial stage of transition from pioneer to early secondary species until at least 19 years after abandonment. The most abundant and frequent species were the fast-growing species Ochroma pyramidale and Cecropia engleriana. These species could be considered potential candidates to promote restoration plans. Pioneer species represented 63% of the number of species in plots of 1–4 years, 57% in plots of 5–7 years, and 50% in plots of 8–19 years. Early and late secondary species represented 34 and 16%, respectively, of the number of species in plots of 8–19 years. Abandoned mining and reference plots present less than 5% of species in common.Conclusion: Our results highlight a slow natural regeneration process in areas for up to 19 years after gold mining. Species from different successional statuses were identified as potential candidates for recovering vegetation in such areas. Our findings may have important implications for further research focusing on the ecological restoration in tropical forests severely degraded by gold mining.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Takashi Osono

The ability of Xylaria species obtained from tropical wood and leaf litter to cause a mass loss of lignin and carbohydrates in wood was examined in vitro with pure culture decomposition tests. The mass loss of wood of four tree species caused by nine Xylaria isolates ranged from 4.5% to 28.4% of the original wood mass. These Xylaria isolates have a potential ability to decompose lignin and other recalcitrant compounds, collectively registered as acid unhydrolyzable residues or Klason lignin in wood. The origin of isolates (i.e., isolates from wood versus leaf litter) did not affect the mass loss of acid unhydrolyzable residue in wood. The Xylaria isolates tested generally caused a selective decomposition of polymer carbohydrates in wood in preference to acid unhydrolyzable residue. The mass loss of acid unhydrolyzable residue caused by Xylaria isolates varied with the tree species of the wood and was negatively related to the initial content of acid unhydrolyzable residue in wood, implying the limiting effect of lignin and recalcitrant compounds on wood decomposition by Xylaria isolates.


1995 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 9-12
Author(s):  
O. Meland

AbstractThe objective of any well designed progeny test programme is to identify those individuals that have inherited the favourable genes from his parents. Bulls that enter a progeny test programme have been highly selected on a set of selection criteria. The criteria vary among organizations based upon their breeding philosophy and their prediction of the future economic value of various traits. The accuracy of choosing among this highly selected group is quite low. Increasing the accuracy of selection before progeny testing is the greatest potential application of genetic marker technology. Markers associated with traits of importance can greatly enhance traditional selection methods by increasing the prospect of an individual having the desired characteristics. Genetic marker-assisted selection can greatly increase the actual genetic merit of traits of economic importance


1934 ◽  
Vol 38 (282) ◽  
pp. 477-480 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Langley

Major Green in his paper has given prominence to a subject which is now becoming of wide interest and great commercial importance. A method of assessing the economic value of speed is very desirable and Major Green has attempted to do this by means of an index figure.I would like to put forward a method which, whilst it does not provide a datum or index figure, offers a ready method of comparing two or more machines, taking into account those features of the aircraft which are of economic importance. It must be accepted that the geographical and political features of different routes, time-tables, and other such extra-to-aircraft items could be included in any method of comparison without the use of an empiric formula, the relative importance of whose terms would be largely a matter of opinion. Further, this method is based not on subsidy earning but profit earning capacity.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-31
Author(s):  
Pradip Kumar Chaudhary ◽  
Mitesh Shrestha ◽  
Bal Hari Poudel ◽  
Mahesh Kumar Adhikari

Wild edible mushrooms are becoming endangered all over the world. Very few wild edible mushrooms are found in natural habitat. Volvariella bombycina is an edible and medicinal mushroom. The mushroom was collected in natural habitat growing on Populus tree. Mycelium of the mushroom was developed in PDA slant tubes by tissue culture method, incubated at 25°C for 1-2 weeks. Spawn was developed in wheat grains after incubation at 25°C for 2-3 weeks. Substrates were formulated for the development of fruiting bodies by combination of paddy straw, saw dust and rice husk. Fruiting bodies of V. bombycina was cultivated in these substrates after incubation at 28 ± 2°C for 2-4 weeks. The work describes the optimized process for in vitro culture of wild edible mushroom Volvariella bomybycina.Nepal Journal of Biotechnology. Dec. 2017 Vol. 5, No. 1: 27-31


Author(s):  
Jon Strand

Different ecosystem values of the Amazon rainforest are surveyed in economic terms. Spatial rainforest valuation is crucial for good forest management, such as where to put the most effort to stop illegal logging and forest fires, and which areas to designate as new nationally protected areas. Three classes of economic value are identified, according to who does the valuation: values accruing to the local and regional populations (of South America); carbon values (which are global); and other global (noncarbon) values. Only the first two classes are discussed. Three types of value are separated according to ecosystem service delivered from the rainforest: provisioning services; supporting and regulating services; and cultural and other human services. Net values of provisioning services, including reduced impact logging and various non-timber forest products, are well documented for the entire Brazilian Amazon at a spatially detailed scale and amount to at least $20–50/ha/year. Less-detailed information exists about values of fish, game, and bioprospecting from the Amazon, although their total values can be shown to be sizable. Many supporting and regulating services are harder to value economically, in particular climate regulation and watershed and erosion protection. Impacts of changed rainfall when Amazon rainforest is lost have been valued at detailed scale, but with relative model values of $10–20/ha/year. Carbon values are much larger, at a carbon price of $30/ton CO2, around $14,000/ha as capitalized value. The average per-hectare value of tourism and the health benefits from having the Amazon forest are low, and such values cannot easily be pinned down to individual areas of the Amazon. Finally, the biodiversity values of the Amazon, as accruing to the local and regional population, seem to be small based on recent stated-preference work in Brazil. Most of the values related to biodiversity are likely to be global and may. in principle, be very large, but the global components are not valued here. The concept of value is discussed, and a marginal valuation concept (practically useful for policy) is favored as opposed to an average or total valuation. Marginal value can be below average value (as is likely for biodiversity and tourism), but can also in some contexts be higher. This can occur where losing forest at a local scale increases the prevalence of forest fires and where it increases forest dryness, leading to a multiplier process whereby more forest is lost. While strides have recently been made to improve rainforest valuation at both micro- and macroscales, much work still remains.


1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 341-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Larsen ◽  
Martin F. Jurgensen ◽  
Alan E. Harvey

Decay caused by some common wood-destroying fungi in several associated tree hosts of the Intermountain forests of western Montana was evaluated as a potential environment for the fixation of dinitrogen. Differences in the rates of fixation were demonstrated between various decay stages, tree species, decay fungi, and brown and white rots. Advanced brown-rotted wood was a more favorable system for nitrogen fixation than wood partially brown rotted. Also, brown-rotted substrates proved to be more favorable than did white rotted, particularly Pseudotsugamenziesii (Mirb.) Franco wood decayed by Fomitopsispinicola (Swartz ex Fr.) Karst. Data demonstrate that a nitrogenase function coexists naturally with decay fungi in woody substrates and that appreciable and significant amounts of nitrogen are fixed in these substrates.


Oryx ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrés M. Cisneros-Montemayor ◽  
Michele Barnes-Mauthe ◽  
Dalal Al-Abdulrazzak ◽  
Estrella Navarro-Holm ◽  
U. Rashid Sumaila

AbstractAmid declining shark populations because of overfishing, a burgeoning shark watching industry, already well established in some locations, generates benefits from shark protection. We compile reported economic benefits at shark watching locations and use a meta-analytical approach to estimate benefits at sites without available data. Results suggest that, globally, c. 590,000 shark watchers expend > USD 314 million per year, directly supporting 10,000 jobs. By comparison, the landed value of global shark fisheries is currently c. USD 630 million and has been in decline for most of the past decade. Based on current observed trends, numbers of shark watchers could more than double within the next 20 years, generating > USD 780 million in tourist expenditures around the world. This supports optimistic projections at new sites, including those in an increasing number of shark sanctuaries established primarily for shark conservation and enacted in recognition of the ecological and economic importance of living sharks.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 1897-1910 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. A. Hood ◽  
P. N. Beets ◽  
J. F. Gardner ◽  
M. O. Kimberley ◽  
M. W.P. Power ◽  
...  

Fungi were isolated to determine the predominant decomposer species active in the coarse woody debris in a beech forest in the central North Island of New Zealand. Basidiomycetes were obtained in 55% of 4569 isolation attempts from discs cut from six trees each of Nothofagus fusca (Hook. F.) Oerst. and Nothofagus menziesii (Hook. F.) Oerst. uprooted during a storm 24 years earlier. Percentage yields varied significantly among trees but not between tree species. However, for N. fusca, basidiomycetes were obtained less frequently from stems of greater mean diameter. In total, 96% of basidiomycete isolates were composed of 18 species, the most abundant being Armillaria novae-zelandiae (G. Stev.) Herink, mainly present in the outer 12 cm, and Ganoderma cf. applanatum sensu Wakef. and Cyclomyces tabacinus (Mont.) Pat., which penetrated more deeply. These fungi were distributed along the stems as somatically incompatible colonies reaching lengths of 11, 2, and 3 m for each species, respectively; those of G. cf. applanatum were separated by brown pseudosclerotial plates. Fruiting of these species was significantly associated with isolation of cultures and, for G. cf. applanatum and C. tabacinus, provided a reliable guide to stem colonization. Basidiomycete diversity in the Nothofagus stems was greater than in two podocarp species in an earlier study. Data from this investigation are being used to assess how decay fungi, together with other factors, influence rates of decomposition of indigenous coarse woody debris.


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