Comparison of two techniques to assess fungal diversity in plantation ecosystems

The forest products industry is a significant earner of foreign currency for South Africa. It is, therefore, important that tools are developed to monitor the health of plantation ecosystems and determine the impact of biotic and abiotic influences. Fungi can be useful indicators of the health of the ecosystem, because they represent an important link in the flow of energy through it and are also involved in most ecosystem processes. The aim of this study was to evaluate two different methods assessing the diversity of fungal communities. The first method was based on the structural diversity of the macrocarpic fungal community, and the second on the functional diversity of fungal populations in the organic horizon of plantation soils. Both techniques showed that diverse fungal communities were supported in pine plantations, but that the structural diversity of macrocarpic fungi was more sensitive in detecting differences between the compartments. This approach could be improved by using specific organisms such as mycorrhizal fungi as indicator species of ecological integrity in plantation ecosystems.