Fungal diversity in decaying spruce logs. Fiby

We examined fungal diversity and density loss in experimental Norway-spruce logs after 12 years of decay in a hemi-boreal forest. Between 28% and 50% of the original wood biomass remained, depending on the fungal community composition in the log; operational taxonomic unit (OTU) richness had only a minor effect on the log biomass. Although the communities were OTU rich (190–340 OTUs per log), the majority of OTUs were infrequent or rare; wood degradation therefore depended mostly on the most abundant OTUs and their decomposing abilities.