Notes on the ecology of Ascocoryne turficola (Ascomycota: Helotiales) in West Siberia

Species with rare occurrence are a target of biodiversity monitoring and protection programs. Ascocoryne turficola is such a species, known as rare from European countries, North and South America. Currently it has been found in 4 locations in the Khanty-Mansiysk autonomous region of Russia (West Siberia). In present paper, the occurrence of A. turficola was estimated in an ecosystem typical for the area - the ombrotrophic bog. The preferred types of bog communities were studied on 20 plots with the total area of 4600 m 2. Total number of encountered apothecia was 104, first collections were done in August, 29, and the last in mid-September. From four investigated communities, A. turficola was found in two (lawns and hollows in ridge-hollow complex), and absent in treed pine-dwarfshrubs-sphagnum bogs. Large lawns revealed higher density of ascocarps, ranging between 2.7 and 16.5 apothecia per 100 m 2. Mean value of ascocarps density for both types was about 4.8 apothecia per 100 m 2. According to floristic classification, inhabited communities are classified in three associations: Hepatico-Rhynchosporetum albae, Scheuchzerio palustris-Sphagnetum cuspidati, and Eriophoro vaginati-Sphagnetum baltici (class Scheuchzerio-Caricetea ). Most collections of A. turficola made in the first association, where the fungus has small, turbinate apothecia, located at the surface of sphagnum covered by liverworts. Apothecia growing in Scheuchzerio palustris-Sphagnetum cuspidati arise among sphagnum with longer stem attached to submerged litter of different graminoids. The species shown to be regular in ombrotrophic lawns of the area, according to the studied location.

peatlands, bogs, mires, fungi, rare fungi, fungal conservation, discomycetes, Helotiales, Ascocoryne turficola, discomycetes, Helotiales, Ascocoryne turficola