Due to the importance of fungi in ecosystems, it is important to study aspects of their biology and ecology according to forest dynamics, including their response to environmental changes and human activity. As part of the vegetation that surrounds one of the largest cities in the Americas, the Magdalena river basin is a suitable place to carry out this type of studies. Previously we have characterized the macromycetes community in the fir forest of this basin, where the genus Inocybe showed a great dominance. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of some environmental variables in the distribution and production of sporomes of Inocybe spcecies. During the rainy season in 2017, we monthly visited fifteen plots distributed in three different sites in the forest. In each plot Inocybe species were recorded, as well as the number of sporomes and their measurements as a biomass estimator. Additionally environmental variables (soil moisture and temperature), edaphic features (organic matter content, nitrogen, phosphorous), topographic characteristics, vegetation covers and the presence of some anthropogenic perturbations were registered in each plot in order to assess their relationship with Inocybe species distribution and biomass production and for estimating the degree of forest conservation.
Results/Conclusions
A total of 1673 sporomes were registered, 729 of which belong to a single species not yet identified but referred to as Inocybe subesp. rimosa 1. Although there were not significant differences in species composition between sites, one site presented almost ten times less fungal biomass than the rest. In this site which is the farthest from the city, the most abundant species in the forest seems to be absent. The environmental variables that characterize this site include the highest altitudes, canopy openness, soil nitrogen and organic matter content values, but mid values of temperature and humidity and the lowest soil pH and humidity. This may suggest a strong effect of the variables of each site in the production of sporomes of these ectomycorrhizal fungi that may be important indicators of forest conservation status or a sign of changing processes in the ecosystem.