Fungal diversity in eastern Canada forests; biogeography and taxonomy of selected mushrooms

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This research proposal has two objectives. The first objective is to determine and compare the diversity and community structure of fungi in soil, litter, and wood debris in four different but adjacent forest types in southern Ontario with the use of massive parallel pyrosequencing. Forest types will include three ectotrophic (scots pine, hemlock, and old growth hardwood) and one non-ectotrophic (sugar maple) stands. We predict that below ground fungal communities will be more similar among ectotrophic stands, while above ground fungal communities will be more similar with respect to wood and litter type (softwood vs. hardwood). Another hypothesis to be tested is that massive DNA sampling of environmental fungi will recover a much higher fungal:plant ratio than the average 6:1 ratio reported by Hawksworth (1991) from traditional fungal sampling methods. If this hypothesis proves correct, then fungal diversity worldwide could be much higher than the predicted 1.5 million. The second objective of this study is to assess the biogeographic relationships of selected eastern Canadian macrofungi of ecological and/or economic importance and to reevaluate their taxonomy. These fungi belong to the ectomycorrhizal genera Amanita, Laccaria, Cantharellus, and Hydnum and the saprobes genera Xerula, Xeromphalina, Pleurotus and Ganoderma. These taxa are chosen because they are commonly found in northern hemisphere temperate forests yet are still taxonomically problematic. We predict that eastern Canadian macrofungi will, in general, be more closely related to species found southward in the Appalaches than they are to western America and European species, thus favoring the hypothesis of post-glacial recolonization from more southern refugees. This would also invalidate the application of European names for many eastern North American taxa as they have largely been applied in the past.