ZLV Online

Abstract

We examined the ectomycorrhizal (ECM) mycobiota at three localities that have different distances from the aluminium plant (locality L2: 2 km away, L7: 7 km away and L18: 18 km away). The trend of a strong negative impact of air pollution on ECM mycobiota has been confirmed in submontane beech stands in the vicinity of the aluminium plant in the locality L2, during 30 years of mycological research. Compared to relatively air pollution-cleared beech stands at the locality L18, at the locality L2 there has been observed low species diversity of ECM macromycetes – (6 to 14 species compared to 18 to 33 species) low values of fruitbodies biomass (1.84 to 5.13 versus 15.95 to 115.82 kg.ha-1 fresh weight of fruitbodies) and low values of mycorrhizal potential (0.42 to 0.74 versus 1.45 to 1.97). We found a significant dependence (P = 0.0009) from the results of the Spearman correlation (R = 0.8293) between the distance from the emission source and the abundance values of ECM fruiting bodies. The negative influence of the aluminium plant on the share of ECM species was also confirmed by Bayesian analysis of the sequences of clones from the soil template nrDNA (decrease from 75% and 72% to 45% in L2). From selected ECM species it is possible to mention fungi that were dominant in research localities, e.g. Hygrophorus eburneus, Lactarius blennius, L. piperatus, Russula cyanoxantha, Xerocomellus chrysenteron. Significant parasites, e.g. Ilyonectria radicicola, Neonectria ditissima and Trichoderma viride were determined from soil monoliths at the locality L2 using molecular genetic methods. It can be concluded that this state of mycobiota in the research sites will not change in the coming years, as long as the residual air pollution in the soil will be a strong stressor for the mycobiota of these forest stands.