The chestnut (Castanea sativa) agro-ecosystem is of great social, economic and landscape
importance in NE Portugal. There are multiple resources associated with this crop, among
them fruit and wood production and mushroom harvesting. However, information about
the diversity and ecology of macrofungi is very scarce. In this context, the aim of this study
was to assess the macrofungal diversity associated with chestnut trees over 4 y. Carpophore
surveys were conducted in a non-tilled C. sativa orchard located in Braganc¸a,
Portugal, from Sep. 2002 to Dec. 2005. A total of 2677 carpophores belonging to 73 species
across 16 families and 23 genera were recorded. Of the total number of macrofungal
species listed, 82 % were ectomycorrhizal (EM) species. The genera with the greatest
species richness were Russula, Inocybe and Lactarius, which accounted for 38.4 % of all
species collected. The most abundant species were Laccaria laccata, Hebeloma crustuliniforme
and Inocybe geophylla, which produced around 35 % of all carpophores. The cumulative
number of species over the four successive years revealed that 80.5 % of macrofungal
species that potentially exist in the study area were surveyed. Species richness and
carpophore abundance fluctuated across years, which could have been related to weather
conditions, especially to rainfall. Fructification occurred in two distinct seasons a year,
autumn and spring, the first one being the most important in terms of number of species
and carpophores. These data could be an important contribution toward the development
of sustainable management practices for chestnut agro-ecosystem conservation.
