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Abstract

The impact of changes within a single land-use category or land-use intensity on microbial communities
is poorly understood, especially with respect to fungi. Here we assessed how forest management regimes
and a change in forest type affect the richness and community structure of wood-inhabiting fungi across
Germany. We used molecular methods based on the length polymorphism of the internal transcribed
spacers and the 5.8S rRNA gene to assess fungal operational taxonomic units (OTUs). A cloning/
sequencing approach was used to identify taxonomic affinities of the fungal OTUs. Overall, 20e24% and
25e27% of native fungal OTUs from forest reserves and semi-natural forests became undetectable or
were lost in managed and converted forests, respectively. Fungal richness was significantly reduced
during a regeneration phase in age-class beech forests with a high level of wood extraction (P ¼ 0.017),
whereas fungal community structures were not significantly affected. Conversion of forests from
native, deciduous to coniferous species caused significant changes in the fungal community structure
(R ¼ 0.64e0.66, P ¼ 0.0001) and could reduce fungal richness (P < 0.05) which may depend on which coniferous species was introduced. Our results showed that Ascocoryne cylichnium, Armillaria sp., Exophiala
moniliae, Hyphodontia subalutacea and Fomes fomentarius, all known for wood-decaying abilities
were strongly reduced in their abundances when forests were converted from beech to coniferous. We
conclude that changes within a single land-use category can be regarded as a major threat to fungal diversity in temperate forest ecosystems.