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Fungi are excellent forest status indicators. In our project we are compiling a book that helps in interpreting the message fungi are telling us. In this project we will promote indicator fungi to become a new tool in assessing and identifying valuable habitats. The new book is aimed at professionals but anybody interested in fungi and forests will find new information in it. Deficiently known species
Indicator fungi are not always threatened or exceptionally rare species but many of them require certain characteristics from their growing sites that are classified as important sites for biodiversity and in need of protection under the METSO programme. In this forthcoming book we determine an indicator species as a fungus whose occurrence in its natural growing habitat depicts the conservational value of that particular habitat. Most of the species included in this book are poorly knows species which have not been included in illustrated field guides before.
The book describes thoroughly 150 forest fungus indicator species both in words and pictures and it offers a scoring method for more than 600 indicators in various forest environments. The focus lies on mycorrhizal fungi living in symbiosis with trees. Polypores are beyond the scope of this book as there already exist high quality literature on the topic. The book under preparation gives also instructions to both people asking for fungus monitoring and actually carrying out the monitoring work.
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Picture 1.
Cortinarius areni-silvae, fleecy milky-cap is a sturdy, ochre brown northern species which grows on sandy pine forests, especially on reindeer grazing grounds where the vegetation is low and patchy. The species known distribution area reaches from Pohjois-Savo to Inari Lappland in Finland. Photo: Jukka Vauras
Picture 2. Lactarius vellereus is a southern species in Finland. It grows under oak, hazelnut or among birches in rich herb forests where the ground floor is almost bare. It is difficult to distinguish L. vellereus from its look-alike species L. glaucescens and L. bertillonii with mere eyesight. Photo: Jukka Vauras
Picture 3. Sarcosphaera coronaria grows in spring and sometimes also in fall in sunny, dry and calciferous soils in forests or meadows and is a threatened fungus species all over Europe. There are only two known growing places in Finland. The species is easy to identify but sometimes hard to observe in forest ground floor. Photo: Jukka Vauras
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Research group
The co-ordinator of the project is Tea von Bonsdorff who has wide experience in various agaric groups and in threatened fungus species. She is also the scientific secretary to the Fungus expert working group funded the Ministry of the Environment. Ilkka Kytövuori, Jukka Vauras and Seppo Huhtinen are professional taxonomists. Kytövuori is a specialist of Cortinarius, Tricholoma, Lactarius and Ramaria species as well as many other Agarics. Vauras specializes in Inocybe and Russula, in particular, but he also has wide experience in other fungal groups. Huhtinen studies Ascomycetes, but recently he has specialized in many other fungal groups as well.
Lasse Kosonen knows comprehensively various agarics and he is the chair of the Fungus expert working group. Kosonen has published many fungal guides and together with Vauras they are among the leading photographers of fungi in Finland. Stefan Jacobson is a specialist of Panellus-species growing on trees. He is also familiar with the use of fungus species as indicators in assessing the value of dry meadows and other open habitats.
Teppo Rämä is an active participant in forest nature monitoring work who has a wide knowledge of fungi. Panu Halme studies the use of decaying fungi as indicators. Halme specializes in the use of indicator species in general and, in particular, the usage of various fungus groups as indicators. Halme together with Rämä are both working actively as field biologists in forest monitoring work and thus can bring the viewpoint of an end user to this project.
Further information
Tea von Bonsdorff-Salminen, The Finnish Museum of Natural History, tel. +358 50 3098439, tea.vonbonsdorff(at)helsinki.fi
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