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Dead sporocarps contribute to forest biodiversity by supporting a specialised decomposer fauna. However, detailed succession studies are few and microarthropods are rarely included. In a spruce-dominated forest reserve near Oslo in southern Norway, sporocarps of Fomitopsis pinicola with known age since death (0–5 years) were sampled and invertebrates extracted by Tullgren funnel. While living sporocarps of this species were rarely attacked by tunnelling invertebrates, dead sporocarps were rapidly colonised by a diverse fauna. The youngest pore layers were consumed first, and after five years, the remaining parts were strongly fragmented. Among 16 beetle species, Cis glabratus and Cis quadridens dominated. Another abundant group in dead sporocarps was oribatid mites belonging to the genus Carabodes, with a total of 10 species. Seven of these colonised during less than one year. While there were few significant changes in the density of adult Cis specimens during decomposition, and C. glabratus dom...

Standing Norway spruce (Picea abies) trees attacked by the spruce bark beetle are often logged to reduce the risk of future bark beetle attacks. This study focuses on the potential ecological value of such trees. The study was conducted in six reserves in Sweden that were hit by a storm in 1995 and suffered from tree mortality caused by the spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus (L.) (Col.; Curculionidae). The volumes of storm-felled trees and of standing trees killed by the spruce bark beetle were recorded during 5 years after the storm. In the present study five of the six reserves were revisited in 2006. Of the dead standing wood, 81% was created by the spruce bark beetle, while 19% constituted of stumps from trees broken by the storm. Thirty-seven per cent of the beetle-killed trees remained standing in 2006, 8–9 years after tree death. A significantly higher frequency of fruiting bodies of Fomitopsis pinicola on broken snags compared with on intact snags indicates that the rot caused by this fu...

This paper characterizes spatial patterns in the occurrence of two congeneric wood-decaying fungi (Aphyllophorales: Polyporaceae) in an old-growth boreal forest in eastern Finland. The spatial patterns are used to evaluate indirectly the short-distance dispersal ability of the species. Fomitopsis rosea is a specialist on Picea abies occurring mainly in forests with large amounts of dead wood, whereas Fomitopsis pinicola is a substrate generalist and also abundant in managed forests. Within a forest reserve, a 25 ha study area was divided into 25 m×25 m grid (n=400), and all dead trees and fruiting bodies of the two polypore species were recorded. Spatial patterns were analysed with Spatial Analysis by Distance IndicEs methodology (SADIE). Downed spruce logs were highly aggregated within the study area. After this distribution was accounted for, the spatial pattern of F. pinicola and F. rosea on logs was random. The lack of spatial aggregation suggests that within old-growth forest stands dispersa...

In most Swedish felling operations high stumps are created from living trees to increase the amounts of dead wood in the forest. The fauna of saproxylic beetles and aradid bugs (Heteroptera) in spruce (Picea abies) high stumps were studied to determine which characteristics (diameter, height, amount of bark and fungal flora) had the strongest influence on the species composition. The practical aim was to see whether it is possible to increase the biodiversity values by management recommendations. The high stumps (n=59) were situated in the middle boreal zone in Sweden and were 6 years old. The insects were sampled by sieving 0.25 m2 bark on each stump In total, 803 saproxylic beetles and Aradus bugs were found, representing 42 different species, five of which were red-listed. The most important factor for determining the beetle community was the presence or absence of two polyporous fungi, Fomitopsis pinicola and Trichaptum abietinum. Other factors were much less important, indicating that it is difficult...

The community of Aphyllophorales fungi in stumps of Picea abies (L.) Karst. and the occurrence of root rot caused by Heterobasidion annosum were investigated at 38 clear-felled sites in Lithuania. Fruit-bodies were recorded on 36.0% of the 3924 examined stumps. The most common were Bjerkandera adusta, Phlebiopsis gigantea, Fomitopsis pinicola, Gloeophyllum sepiarium, Stereum sanguinolentum, Trametes zonata and H. annosum. All species occurred in stumps both with and without established root rot, but B. adusta, F. pinicola, G. sepiarium, T. zonata and Trichaptum abietinum occurred less often in stumps containing root rot, while H. annosum was encountered more often. Greater numbers of fruit-bodies were found on stumps cut in summer than on those cut in winter. The fruiting became most abundant 3-4 yrs after the trees were felled. The abundance of nearly all Aphyllophorales correlated positively with the stump diameter, and on larger stumps, fruit-bodies of several different fungi were more common. The numb...