Preliminary quantitative estimation of wood decomposition by fungi in a Russian temperate pine forest

Published Date

February 1996, Vol.81(1):249–257, doi:10.1016/0378-1127(95)03660-1

Short communication

• Author 

• Valery B. Temnuhin

• Institute of Forest Sciences, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uspenskoye, Moscow Region, 143030, Russia

Accepted 16 September 1995. Available online 2 March 1999. 

Abstract

The quantity of wood decomposition products, such as carbon dioxide, water, heat and inner mycelium, have been evaluated. The study site is a pine forest in Moscow Region (Serebrianny Bor). Only dead trees of Scots pine (Pinus syluestris L.) were investigated, and they proved to be attacked by 16 widely distributed species of dominated wood-decomposing fungi. This study was carried out in 1992 during the summer drought. The results show that the fungi, that occupied not higher than 11.5 m³ ha⁻¹ of fallen timber, can produce (ha⁻¹) up to 1.9 kgC in inner mycelium, 58.7 × 10⁹ J heat, about 4.4 kgC for CO₂ emission and accumulate 0.4 m³ water on average.

Thus, the quantity of decay wood products is rather high, even during the drought, even if the amount of dead wood was fairly low.

Keywords

• Pine forest
• Wood-destroying fungi
• Products of wood decomposition

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