Post-fire fungi in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park [poster]

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) is an International Biosphere Reserve that spans more than half a million acres (2200 km2) between the mountainous borders of eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. It has been the site of an All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory since 1998. In November 2016, a fire started in the Chimney Tops area and spread northward to Gatlinburg burning over 11,000 acres resulting in regions of lightly to severely burned forest. The goal of our project is to survey post-fire fungi throughout five areas of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park with light, moderate, and severe burn intensities, within cove hardwoods, oak hickory, and xeric pine forest types: Chimney Tops Nature Loop Trail (lightly burned cove hardwood), Balsam Point Quiet Walkway (lightly burned cove hardwood), Twin Creeks Nature Center (moderately burned oak hickory), Bullhead Trail (moderately burned oak hickory), and Baskins Creek Trail (severely burned xeric pine). Collecting between March and June 2017 yielded several finds of Ascomycota including Anthracobia macrocystis, A. melanoma, Geopyxis carbonaria, Morchella exuberans, Peziza echinospora, Pyronema domesticum, and P. omphalodes. Several species of Basidiomycota were also observed: Coprinellus angulatus, Hygrocybe conica, Laccaria bicolor, Mycena galericulata, Pholiota highlandensis, and Psathyrella pennata.