Consequences of fire and other prairie management treatments for macrofungi in the Pacific Northwest of the U. S. A.

Abstract

Prairies were once extensive in the Pacific Northwest, but declined due to Euro-American settlement, agriculture, and fire exclusion. Remnant and restored prairies require frequent management to limit establishment of trees and invasive plants. We asked whether management practices affect sporocarps (“mushrooms”) by quantifying sporocarps in prairie restoration treatments, including fire. Management treatments significantly affected sporocarp production; there were more mushrooms in burned plots and fewer in carbon addition plots. Surveys of fire chronosequences (not burned for >150 years, burned in 2012, 2014 or 2015) revealed significant differences in sporocarp numbers depending on time since fire (more in unburned and in 2015 burns), whether the prairie was an upland or wetland (more in uplands), and when the census occurred. In these now rare habitats, we found over 400 species of macrofungi, some of which were uncommon to rare. These results can inform management to support fungal diversity in Pacific Northwest prairies.