Macrofungal biodiversity in the western ghat foot hill semi-urban city of Manipal and forest terrains of Koodlu Theertha falls, Karnataka

Fungi plays an important role for a sustainable ecology. This study was carried out to document the niche macrofungal diversity and distribution in the western ghat foot hill semi-urban city of Manipal and the forest region near Koodlu Theertha Falls, Udupi Dist., Karnataka. Generic diversity was observed among 30 sporocarp forage sampling during the period August - September 2015. Out of these, maximum ten genera were assignable to family Polyporaceae, three genera to Clavariaceae, two genera to Ganodermataceae, Marasiaceae respectively and one genus to Cantharellaceae. Rest of the families were denoted by single genus only. Out of 30 mushrooms 10 were identified upto species level by Morphing Mushroom Identifier (MMI) and MycoKey version 4.1 innovative identification tool. The ecological preference revealed that maximum was saprophyte, living on dead substrates or decaying wood debris, few were found associated with roots of higher angiospermic trees while only one were found parasitic. The Simpson diversity and Shannon biodiversity index were calculated and documented for both Manipal (0.95 and 2.204) and Koodlu Theeratha falls (0.85 and 1.874). Species richness was higher in the post monsoon seasons than in the early dry seasons and tended to decrease with increasing altitude. The present study is first of its kind to document the macro fungal biodiversity in the pristine forest area near Koodlu Theertha falls and the growing semi-urban city of Manipal.