Seasonal consumption of mycorrhizal fungi by a marsupial-dominated mammal community

Title
Seasonal consumption of mycorrhizal fungi by a marsupial-dominated mammal community
Publication Date
2023-08
Author(s)
Nest, Conor
Elliott, Todd F
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9304-7040
Email: tellio20@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:tellio20
Cooper, Tani
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5715-5308
Email: tcooper7@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:tcooper7
Vernes, Karl
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1635-9950
Email: kvernes@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:kvernes
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1016/j.funeco.2023.101247
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/69868
Abstract

The temperate forests of Australia support a high diversity of hypogeous fungi and a wide variety of mycophagous mammals, yet many mammal-fungal relationships are still poorly understood. We studied the seasonal fungal diets of eight sympatric mammals (seven marsupials and one rodent) in a remnant montane eucalypt forest. Fifty-five different fungal taxa were identified from 305 scat samples. Swamp wallabies (Wallabia bicolor), yellow-footed antechinus (Antechinus flavipes) and brown antechinus (A. stuartii) were the primary mycophagists in this community, but all mammals consumed fungi, including three species not previously recorded as mycophagous (eastern grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus;common wallaroo, Osphranter robustus; and common dunnart, Sminthopsis murina). Winter was the peak season for fungal consumption and dietary diversity of fungi, however, the diversity of taxa ingested varied between species and season. Our work supports the idea that a diverse mycophagous mammal community is important for maintaining natural variation in fungal community composition.

Link
Citation
Fungal Ecology, v.64, p. 1-10
ISSN
1878-0083
1754-5048
Start page
1
End page
10

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