Composition and richness of fruiting body and molecular fungal taxa of woody debris in boreal forest sites

Woody debris and their associated fungi represent key structural and functional components of forest systems. I used fruiting body surveys and molecular methods to compare composition of fungal taxa across two decay classes of softwood logs among sites differing in management history. I also examined three ways of assessing diversity: observed richness based on fruiting body sampling, observed richness based on operational taxonomic unit sampling and a comparison of phylogenetic composition based on the operational taxonomic unit data. I evaluated whether fungal composition varied across different decay classes of logs and sites differing in management history and whether different analyses showed the same picture. Decay class strongly influenced fruiting body and molecular taxon composition. Each sampling method recovered unique fungal taxa suggesting that careful selection of sampling methods is important. Diversity measures appeared robust in their detection of decay class as the strongest environmental signal.