Species richness of tropical wood-inhabiting macrofungi provides support for species-energy theory

A study was undertaken at the El Verde Field Station in Puerto Rico to determine the effect of energy available from newly dead trees on the species richness of macrofungal communities that inhabit them. It is hypothesized that there is a positive relationship between available energy and species richness. Energy was measured using the volume of the dead trees and the wood density of living trees of the same species. One hundred ninety-four logs of known tree species were surveyed 1 y for fruiting bodies of macrofungi at monthly intervals. For individual logs, log volume had a significant positive effect on macrofungal species richness. Younger logs had significantly higher species richness than older logs, and those with less apparent decay had more species than those with more decay. When logs were grouped by tree species, total wood volume and density of live wood had a significant positive effect and average log diameter had a negative effect on total species richness and abundance of the wood-inhabiting macrofungi. Macrofungal richness and abundance constantly increased with initial wood density; there was no evidence for a unimodal relationship. These results support the proposed relationship between species richness and energy.