Abundance of wood decay macrofungi in forest ecosystems with different management histories in the Kheyroud forest, Nowshahr, northern Iran

This research aimed to investigate the effects of forest management on the presence and abundance of macrofungi. Through a full inventory of all fungus-affected trees and removing the fungi from the trees in the sites under investigation, three of them having a long history of different forest management in the Kheyroud Forest were selected, i.e. one in Patom with three periods of tree marking, another in Namkhaneh with two and the other in Gorazbon with no tree marking. The results showed that the majority of the fungi could be found at the fifth level of tree categorization regarding their health, i.e. at the level of fallen dead wood (log, stump, branches and twigs). Ganoderma lucidum at 14 percent showed maximum abundance, whereas Cookeina at 0/008 the lowest. With regard to the area of the site under investigation, in hectare, the percentage of the fungi in Gorazbon, Namkhaneh and Patom were 1.22, 1.18, and 0.54%, respectively. It could finally be concluded that the percentage of the wood macrofungi in intact forests was more than managed ones.