This Article Full Text (PDF) Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Permissions Google Scholar Articles by Walker, A. K. Articles by Campbell, J. PubMed Articles by Walker, A. K. Articles by Campbell, J. Agricola Articles by Walker, A. K. Articles by Campbell, J.

Marine fungal diversity: a comparison of natural and created saltmarshes of the north-central Gulf of Mexico.

     ¹ Coastal Sciences, Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, 703 East Beach Drive, Ocean Springs, Mississippi, 39564, United States of America
² Department of Coastal Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, Ocean Springs, MS, 39564, United States of America

Marine fungal communities of created saltmarshes of differing ages were compared with those of two reference natural saltmarshes. Marine fungi occurring on the lower 30 cm of the saltmarsh plants Spartina alterniflora and Juncus roemerianus were inventoried using morphological and molecular methods (ITS T-RFLP analysis) to determine fungal species richness, relative frequency of occurrence and ascomata density. The resulting profiles revealed similar fungal communities in natural saltmarshes and created saltmarshes 3 y old and older and older, with a 1.5 y old created marsh showing less fungal colonization. A 26 y old created saltmarsh consistently exhibited the highest fungal species richness. Ascomata density of the dominant fungal species on each host was significantly higher in natural marshes than in created marshes at all three sampling dates. This study indicates marine fungal saprotroph species are present in these manmade coastal saltmarshes as early as 1 y after marsh creation. The lower regions of both plant hosts were dominated by a small number of marine ascomycete species consistent with those species previously reported from saltmarshes of the East Coast of the USA.

Key words: ITS T-RFLP analysis, Juncus roemerianus, saltmarsh fungi, Spartina alterniflora