Mycologia
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DOI: 10.3852/07-197
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Mycologia, 100(6), 2008, pp. 843-850.
© 2008 by The Mycological Society of America

Microhabitat and niche separation in species of Ceratiomyxa


Carlos Rojas 1

     Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Martin Schnittler

     Botanical Institute and Botanical Garden, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany

Daniella Biffi

     Department of Biology, Universidad Ricardo Palma, Lima, Peru

Steven L. Stephenson

     Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

The eumycetozoan genus Ceratiomyxa appears to have a cosmopolitan distribution, although two of the three macroscopic species within the genus have been reported only from tropical regions of the world. In theory these two tropical species might be expected to display more narrow niches than their cosmopolitan counterpart due to their specialization for tropical environments. However ecological data documenting niche separation in eumycetozoans are largely lacking. As part of several investigations carried out in the neotropics the ecology of the three macroscopic species of Ceratiomyxa was studied. The results from in situ measurements of environmental factors associated with their fructifications reveal a clear separation of niches between the two tropical species, which might be an indication of resource partitioning within the genus. As expected in theory the cosmopolitan C. fruticulosa shows the broadest niche of the three species. Moreover the niche overlap value between C. morchella and C. sphaerosperma along with results from a multivariate CDA analysis seem to indicate that these two species are more specialized than C. fruticulosa.

Key words: community ecology, eumycetozoans, neotropics, niche overlap, resource partitioning

1 Corresponding author. E-mail: crojas{at}uark.edu






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Copyright © 2008 by The Mycological Society of America.