XVI International Botanical Congess

Five years of intensive survey work at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (IDNL) has documented a high diversity of macrofungi with low species overlap between oak woodland and forested swamp. The species composition of the site may have been negatively impacted by the site=s proximity to heavy industry. For example, Cantharellus cibarius, a widespread ectomycorrhizal (ECM) species commonly found in oak woodlands around Chicago was found only one year at IDNL. Similarly, the diversity of ECM Boletaceae is also lower at IDNL. These observations are correlated with a lower than expected ratio of ECM taxa to other ecological guilds of macrofungi at the IDNL oak woodland, as compared to ratios obtained for two oak communities surveyed in suburban south Chicago. While this pattern of reduced ECM species diversity in sites affected by airborne pollutants needs confirmation through additional sampling throughout the Chicago area, it is consistent with reports from European studies and suggest that airborne pollutants are having negative effects on beneficial and sensitive species of fungi in Midwestern oak-dominated forest communities.