UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

Fungi plays an important role in the ecosystem by decomposing dead plants, and otherorganic matter. Without this process, there would be an accumulation of organic material in theforest which would go un-decomposed. Fungi, which are saprotrophic macrofungi from thephyla Basidioycota and Ascomycota, have the vital job of recycling nutrients from dead plantmaterial in the forest back into the soil. The abundance of organic material created by thelandslides on the reserve behind Estación Biológica in Monteverde, Puntarenas, Costa Rica mayhave given rise to nearly twice the amount of different species of fungi (31) compared to thosealongside undisturbed trails (18) where there was not an abundance of organic material. I foundmore basidiomycetes compared to ascomycetes in both trails. Some types of fungi require asuccession of decomposition to take place before establishing mycelium, whereas I found otherswhich were substrate specific. Species of fungi which were very common were Agaricales sensulato, Coprinellus disseminatus, and Scutellinia scutellata. Other species were substrate specific,such as the red mushrooms of Hygrocybe coccinea.