Macromycete fungal diversity in the Andean Amazonian rainforest of the Sacta Valley, Cochabamba, Bolivia

Abstract

Deforestation has affected the pre-Andean Amazonian tropical rainforests, as microregions are of relevant ecological and environmental importance for biodiversity conservation. Macromycetes are some of the organisms facing extinction owing to the alteration of which the natural tropical rainforests have been subjected. This work provides an inventory of the macromycetes inhabiting the last relicts of natural, unspoiled rainforest of the Department of Cochabamba, Bolivia, and reports the advancements made in their identification and classification. The inventory was taken in the permanently monitored plots established within the primary forest preserved by the San Simón University at the Valley of Sacta Fund. We found sixty-two different morphotypes, fifty-five of which are macromycetes and seven are not polypores. Fifty morphotypes were categorized as saprophytes living on dead trunks and branches and twelve morphotypes parasitizing living trunks of 17 tree species. Low macromycete species richness and the Shannon index (3.78) are indicative of low macrofungal diversity.