Abstract Detail

Poster Session

Thomas, Daniel [1], Vandegrift, Roo [1], Ludden, Ashley [1], Carroll, George [1], Roy, Bitty [1].

Fungal Foliar Endophyte Dispersal: Testing the Foraging Ascomycete Hypothesis.

Fungal endophyte life cycles remain poorly known, despite the large implications for the fields of fungal ecology and plant pathology. Here we test the hypothesis that the fungal endophyte lifestyle is for some groups a dispersal strategy: leaves may represent a vector for the microfungi that inhabit them. Senescent leaves may fall farther from a tree than most spores alone are capable of traveling, and leaves may enhance colonization of other substrates by creating suitable microclimates. This is the Foraging Ascomycete hypothesis, proposed by George Carroll. To test this hypothesis we sampled fungal endophytes and stromata of wood-decomposers of the genus Xylaria (Xylariaceae, Sordariomyctes) in a half-hectare plot in the Ecuadorian Cloud Forest in a spatially explicit manner. We predicted (1) that some foliar endophytic members of Xylaria also exist for part of their life-cycle as wood-rotting fungi, (2) some of these fungi would display dispersal limitation on the scale of our study and (3) that therefore in some groups these two life cycles will be coupled spatially. We found that all Xylaria foliar endophyte species recovered also acted as wood decomposers, though the reverse was not found to be true, and that some species appeared to be clustering on a scale captured by our study, indicating dispersal limitation. Several Xylaria species showed significant spatial coupling of endophyte and wood-decomposer life-cycles on the scale of our study.

1 - University of Oregon, Biology, Institute of Ecology and Evolution, 335 Pacific Hall, 5289 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403-5289, USA

Keywords:
fungal endophytes
Foraging Ascomycte Hypothesis
dispersal
decomposer fungi
spatial ecology.

Presentation Type: Offered Paper - Poster
Session: P6
Location: Lincoln Room/Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Tuesday, June 10th, 2014
Time: 8:00 PM
Number: P6005
Abstract ID:95
Candidate for Awards:Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award