Coprophilous fungal communities in an agroecological transitioning settlement in the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest

Nicole Helena de Brito Gondim & Roger Fagner Ribeiro Melo

Sydowia 72: 39-56

Published online on February 6th, 2020

On studying the coprophilous fungal species composition in an agroecological transitioning settlement in Brazil, 29 species were identified, with 414 occurrences recorded. Coprinopsis stercorea was the dominant species, presenting the highest number of occurrences (47; 11.35 %). Podospora is the richest genus, with eight species, P. fimiseda being the most frequent (25; 6.03 %) one. All substrates were satisfactory in terms of diversity in these communities. Cercophora silvatica, Schizothecium vesticola and Podospora venezuelensis are new records for Brazil. Considering species composition, the three dung types were significantly different. Goat dung proved to be favorable for the development of more species, presenting higher values both in occurrences and species richness. Despite a similar number of occurrences have been observed among communities, most species (21; 72.41 %) present a significant difference between the three studied dung types. Among the identified species, some occurrence patterns are discussed, such as specialist species, favoring one of the substrates, and generalist species, with widely distributed records. Rainfall has small influence on coprophilous fungal communities’ parameters.

Keywords: Ascomycota, dung fungi, taxonomy, fimicolous fungi.

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