XVI International Botanical Congess
To understand ectomycorrizal community dynamics of a fire maintained ecosystem, we have begun a study in a Minnesota Oak Savannah-Woodland LTER site. It has been subjected to prescribed burns for 35 years and plant community structure and soil resources have been intensively studied. Three treatments were used to compare species diversity and composition above and below ground: unburned, infrequently and frequently burned. Our first year sporocarp data indicated a total of 57 species in 18 genera. We found 11, 42 or 24 species fruiting in the units in order of increasing burn frequency and only 1 or 2 species shared between unburned and frequently burned units. RFLP analysis of the ITS region of nuclear rDNA, 3 soil cores/unit, showed 18 patterns in the unburned and 9 in the frequently burned units with no overlap between units.