The role of bracket fungi in creating alpha diversity of invertebrates in the Białowieża National Park, Poland

Bracket fungi are seen mainly as the cause of economic losses in forestry and their role as creators of biodiversity is relatively poorly understood. The effect of this group of fungi on the modification of biodiversity of invertebrates (spiders – Aranae, Opiliones – Opiliones, pseudoscorpions – Pseudoscorpionida, two groups of mites – Mesostigmata, and Oribatida, springtails – Collembola, and insects – Insecta) was investigated by analyzing 100 fruiting bodies of 10 species of bracket fungi divided into four DD classes. As well as defining the manner in which the degree of decay (DD) of the fruiting bodies determines the character of the invertebrate assemblages colonising them were the aims of this study. The material was collected at Białowieża National Park, which is considered to be the largest area of natural forests in the North European Plain. 16 068 invertebrate individuals classified into 224 species were obtained. Oribatid mites (12 543 individuals) constituted the largest gr...