Distribution and ecology of myxomycetes in the high-elevation oak forests of Cerro Bellavista, Costa Rica
artículo original
Ver/
Fecha
2007Autor
Rojas Alavarado, Carlos Alonso
Stephenson, Steven L.
Metadatos
Mostrar el registro completo del ítemResumen
Myxomycetes associated with a high-elevation
(.3000 m) oak forest in the Talamanca Range of
Costa Rica were studied for 7 mo. Field collections
were supplemented with collections obtained from
moist chamber cultures prepared with samples of
bark and ground litter of Quercus costaricensis.
Various microenvironmental parameters including
pH, substrate moisture and diameter, height above
the ground and canopy openness were recorded for
each field collection, whereas macroenvironmental
data for temperature and precipitation were obtained
from a meteorological station near the study area.
Niche breadth and niche overlap indices were
calculated to assess possible resource partitioning by
myxomycetes. Thirty-seven species were recorded,
including 11 new records for Costa Rica, eight for
Central America and one for the neotropics. Both
PCA and NMS multivariate analyses indicated that pH
and height above the ground explained most of the
observed variation, although substrate diameter also
seemed to be an important factor. Precipitation
showed an inverse correlation with the number of
fruitings, confirming its importance as a macroenvironmental
factor. Niche overlap values were not
higher for closely related species and values for niche
breadths were similar for most of the more common
species, suggesting that most members of the assemblage
of myxomycetes present in the study site are
ecological generalists.
External link to the item
10.3852/mycologia.99.4.534Colecciones
- Biología [1616]