Microfungi from Carpinus caroliniana

The microfungal flora and community structure of the bark of Carpinus caroliniana is described as perceived by a direct isolation method. Twenty-four bark discs were removed from 10 trees at five different sites in New Jersey and West Virginia and applied to three different isolation media. From 1200 bark discs from 50 trees, 155 species of fungi were isolated. The overall recovery rate was 11.5 species/tree. A medium with cycloheximide gave the highest species recovery rates and isolated the highest percentage of all the species recovered. A medium of malt–yeast extract gave the most isolates but lowest species recovery rate. Eleven of the 12 dominant species were preferentially isolated on one of the three isolation media. The community structure of the fungi recovered from Carpinus bark exhibited the typical dominance–diversity curve that has been reported for other saprobic fungal communities. Generally, the floristic composition was similar to the bark of other tree species previously studied in temperate deciduous forests. The total number of isolates was dominated by a few species of ubiquitous epiphytic taxa, but a large percentage of the species recovered appeared either at a single site or on a single tree. Sterile isolates accounted for 39% of the species and Coelomycetes for 13% of the species. The sites from West Virginia had a significantly higher recovery rate of species per tree than the New Jersey sites. In a search for fungi for potential biotechnological applications, bark is an easily utilized and rich resource. Simple isolation methods yield several ecological groups of fungi, including terrestrial epiphytes, soil decomposers, endophytes, entomopathogenic fungi, Ingoldian Hyphomycetes, and decomposer Basidomycetes. Key words: bark, ironwood, isolation methods, microbial diversity.