BETA-FOR-Experimentally manipulating forest structure to mimic management strategies: effects on deadwood fungal diversity and related ecosystem processes, Fungal community, ITS amplicons

Understanding the relationships between forest management, biodiversity, and ecosystem processes is necessary for achieving multifunctionality. Deadwood fungi are extremely diverse and important for carbon turnover in forests. However, how forest structure, resulting from management, affects deadwood fungal diversity and decomposition is not well known. We experimentally tested the effects of microclimate (via canopy cover) and deadwood enrichment (snags, logs, tree crowns, and habitat trees) on fungal diversity. Further, we assessed the effects of the treatments and fungal diversity on wood mass loss. We characterized the fungal communities of Fagus sylvatica (European beech) and Pinus sylvestris (Scots pine) deadwood via metabarcoding and measured wood mass loss after 3 years.