Biodiversity of macrofungi in the beech forests and calcareous grasslands of the Simbruini Mountains Regional Park (central Apennines, Italy)

Abstract

The central Apennine beech forests and their calcareous secondary grasslands are valuable landscape elements that contain high levels of fungal diversity and represent a reservoir of native biodiversity. As little is known about these habitats, which have seldom been investigated even in Italy, we decided to conduct a census of fungi in such habitats in the Simbruini Mountains Regional Park. The data gathered in the field were used to perform statistical analyses to investigate possible correlations between the sampling sites of fungal species and some environmental parameters. The calcareous grasslands were compared both among themselves and with the surrounding beech woodland ecosystems. Moreover, a mountain peak in the lower alpine zone, above the tree line, was analyzed with the aim of highlighting the ecological features of the different sampling sites.

Keywords:

• Beech forest
• fungal biodiversity
• grassland
• mycobiota
• Lazio
• Simbruini

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Park management committee for allowing this research and to Dr. E. Grilli for his valuable collaboration.