The role of sciurids and murids in the dispersal of truffle-forming ectomycorrhizal fungi in the Interior Cedar-Hemlock biogeoclimatic zone
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Ectomycorrhizal fungi form an integral tripartite relationship with trees and rodents whereby the fungi provide nutritional benefits for the trees, the trees provide carbohydrate for the fungi, and the rodents feed on the fruit bodies produced by the fungi and then disperse the fungal spores in their feces. When forests are harvested, new ectomycorrhizae must form. It has been assumed that dispersal beyond the root zone of surviving trees happens by way of animals dispersing the spores in their feces, but the importance of particular animal taxa to fungal spore dispersal into disturbed areas in the Interior Cedar Hemlock Biogeoclimatic zone of British Columbia has not previously been investigated. This study observed the occurrence and prevalence of hypogeous fruit bodies (truffles) of ectomycorrhizal fungi, and fungal spores in the feces of a range of rodent species. Truffles were excavated and sciurids (squirrels, chipmunks) and murids (mice, voles) were trapped on sites in a 7 to 102-year chronosequence, as well as unharvested sites adjacent to 7- and 25-year-old sites. The average truffle species richness in soil did not change significantly over the chronosequence. Rhizopogon species were present at all sites and treatments. Deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) and yellow-pine chipmunks (Tamias amoenus) were the most commonly trapped rodents across all site ages and were also the most likely to move between harvested and unharvested areas. Red-backed voles (Clethrionomys gapperi), red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus), and flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus) were also studied, but were trapped in much lower numbers and rarely, if ever, were detected moving between harvested and adjacent mature sites. However, all animal taxa studied carried fungal spores in their feces. Spores of Rhizopogon spp. and Hysterangium separabile were the most frequently consumed by all the animals studied. Because deer mice and chipmunks were the most likely to move between mature and harvested sites and they frequently carried fungal spores in their feces, they are likely the most important mammals for dispersal of ectomycorrhizal fungal spores in this area. This study highlights the importance of small mammal conservation when forest management is considered.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".