Fungal biomass associated with decaying leaf litter in a stream

✍ Scribed by M. O. Gessner; J. Schwoerbel

• Book ID: 104721167
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 234 KB
• Volume: 87
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0029-8549
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00320428

✦ Synopsis

Fungal biomass, measured as ergosterol content, was determined on alder leaf litter incubated during autumn in a softwater Pyrenean stream. The ergosterol content of the leaf litter increased rapidly to a maximum of 462 μg/g detrital dry mass. Ergosterol contents of aquatic Hyphomycetes grown in shake culture were typically ≤5 mg/g mycelial dry mass. Using the corresponding ergosterol-to-biomass conversion factor of 200, peak fungal mass accounted for 9.2% of total system mass, or 10.2% of leaf dry mass. For the period of highest activity (incubation days 7-28), net fungal production on leaf litter was estimated as 2.3 mg d g leaf mass. A conservative estimate of the growth efficiency for the same period was 105 mg mycelial mass per gram leaf mass degraded, assuming that non-leaf organic matter did not constitute an important carbon source supporting fungal production.