Fomes fomentarius in the Urals and adjacent territories from the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology herbaria

Study Extent

The dataset contains information about fruiting bodies identified as a tinder fungus (Fomes fomentarius (L.) Fr. 1849) collected within the territory, mainly of the Middle and South Urals. The sampling was mainly carried out on the territory of Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Orenburg, Kurgan regions, Perm Krai, the Republic of Bashkortostan of the Russian Federation, and Kostanay region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Single finds from Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug of the Russian Federation are also presented. Much attention is paid to the study of urbanized areas, including on the territory of residential buildings, as well as parks and forest parks. The dataset includes information from three different sources. The first part is the digitized data of the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology herbarium (acronym SVER), collected from 1950 to 2002, mainly by the research group of Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences N. T. Stepanova-Kartavenko. The second part consists of herbarium specimens from the collection of Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences V. A. Mukhina, sampled in expeditions from 1994 to 2002. The third part is composed of the collections of V.A. Mukhin and E.V. Zhuykova from 2019 to 2021, it is being increased at the present time.

Sampling

The label data, previously digitized by the Museum of Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology employees, as well as the coordinates reconstructed and their belonging to the administrative divisions are stored in Excel format. From such a single database, a sample was made based on the name of the species and the names of large administrative-territorial units located in the territory of the Middle and South Urals. Adjacent areas were also included. During expeditions to Russia, V. A. Mukhin collected xylotrophic fungi mainly by route census technique. Each fruit body was provided with a field and/or post-expedition label. The herbarium is stored in boxes according to the principle of one region and one year (for example, the South Urals 2002). A screening search for the fruiting bodies of Fomes fomentarius based on the diagnostic macromorphological characters (Ryvarden, Gilbertson, 1993) was undertaken for boxes belonging to investigation territories. The search was performed three times by different people. Sampling since 2018 fruiting bodies were collected by route method, herborization method is according to Mueller et al. (2004). Collectors monitored the coverage and uniform distribution of samples over the area of forest parks and cities.

Quality Control

The authors maintain a monotypic approach to species identification within the genus Fomes and consider Fomes fomentarius within the boundaries of Fomes fomentarius sensu lato. Species verification was carried out by Professor, Doctor of Biological Sciences V.A. Mukhin. The coordinates of the SVER herbarium specimens were established by the head of the Museum N.G. Erokhin during the initial digitization. The coordinates of the rest of the finds were either determined at the time of collection of the fruiting body using a GPS navigator or were reconstructed using geographical names, field journals, and using the Google.Maps service (google.ru/maps/) and Yandex.Maps service (yandex.ru/maps). The priority was the collector prescriptions. The final georeferenced check was carried out by the collectors.

Method steps

1. At the first stage, the data of labels, field journal were entered and any additional information about the fruiting body was aggregated into an Excel table;
2. In the second step, the table was transformed according to the DarwinCore format. Particular attention was paid to the preservation of the initial data;
3. The initial information about the date is given in “verbatimEventDate”, then converted to “eventDate” with explanations in “eventRemarks”;
4. The “RecordedBy” field lists the collectors in descending order of their contribution;
5. In “IdentifiedBy” field, researchers are listed in the order of priority of identification and verification;
6. “OccurrenceRemarks” field contains the substrate notes and/or information from the herbarium label in its original form. Information from this field is divided and redistributed into “Habitat” and “AssociatedTaxa”, in some cases it is left only in its original form (for example, about the state of the substrate: stump, young tree, dry tree);
7. “AssociatedTaxa” field contains information about the substrate (host), the author's definition is preserved, the names of systematic units are checked by Species Matching (gbif.org/tools/species-lookup) and are listed according to the GBIF backbone;
8. Samples whose coordinates were determined in the field using the GPS navigator Garmin GPSmap have a corresponding entry in “georeferenceSources”. Their coordinates are taken in their original form, rounded to 0.0001;
9. The coordinates of the samples, which were recovered from the data of herbarium labels and field journals, were checked against the published data, as well as by the collectors using the Google.Maps service (google.ru/maps/);
10. The coordinates of SVER herbarium specimens were established during the initial digitization by the head of the Museum N.G. Erokhin, then the coordinates were converted from Degrees Minutes Seconds to decimal values;
11. Additional collector comments on coordinates are provided in “georeferenceRemarks”;
12. In “georeferencedBy”, all researchers who contributed to the definition of the coordinate are indicated, in decreasing order of their contribution, in the end, there is a reviewer;
13. “stateProvince” and “county” are filled in according to the framework of administrative divisions of Russia and Kazakhstan, the definition of belonging to the county was carried out using Yandex.Maps service (yandex.ru/maps);
14. “VerbatimLocality” contains the initial location record from the herbarium label or a field journal. Its decoding is given in “locality”;
15. “CatalogNumber” contains the numbers of the internal herbarium system of E.V. Zhuykova or SVER herbarium number (a comma is needed to indicate the number of a sample from several in a box with a single herbarium number);
16. “OtherCatalogNumbers” contains information about numbers in other systems used by authors for re-checking and additional verification.

1. Fungi
   rank: kingdom
2. Basidiomycota
   rank: phylum
3. Agaricomycetes
   rank: class
4. Polyporales
   rank: order
5. Polyporaceae
   rank: family
6. Fomes fomentarius
   rank: species

The Central Urals is the lowest part of the Ural Mountains. It is a peneplain with isolated peaks and ridges (average height is 700-800 m, rarely higher). The width of the mountain strip reaches 25-30 km, with the foothills – 80-90 km. From the west, the hilly Cis-Urals adjoins the mountains. The Trans-Urals are characterized by flattened hills and mountains, as well as systems of lakes and marshes in the northern part. The climate is continental. The average January temperature is -18 °C, the average July temperature is +18 °C. In the east 400-500 mm of precipitation falls annually, in the southeast – up to 380 mm, in the north – up to 700 mm. The western slopes are covered predominantly with fir (Abies sibirica) and spruce (Picea abies) forests (dark coniferous taiga) and the eastern sides are pine (Pinus sylvestris) dominated forests intermixed with larch (Larix sibirica), birch (Betula spp.) and aspen (Populus tremula). Only some peaks rise above the upper border of the forest, on which a belt of suppressed trees, including a birch crooked forest, can be noted. In the southeast, there are sections of the forest-steppe.
The South Urals is the southern and widest mountain system of the Ural Mountains. The highest peak is Yamantau Mountain (1,640 m). The Southern Urals expands to 250 km due to the abutment of wide foothills. The relief is composed of different height ridges, dissected by valleys. The climate is between moderately and extremely continental. The average temperature in January is from -15 to -18 °C, the average temperature in July is +19 °C. Precipitation ranges from 350 to 700-800 mm per year. Precipitation is unevenly distributed: more of them (550-650 mm) falls on the western (windward) slopes, less (400-450 mm) – on the eastern (leeward) slopes. On the western slopes, within an altitude of 250-650 m, there are coniferous-deciduous forests of southern taiga. The most common are pine (Pinus sylvestris) and temperate forests. In the west of the mountain forest zone, temperate broad-leaf forests are widespread. Altitudinal zonation is clearly traced. The level of dark coniferous forests extends to an altitude of 1100 m above sea level. Fir-spruce forests prevail in its lower strip, among which there are larch-pine forests. Where the main species were cut down, aspen-birch forests grew. Above, there is a transitional level and mountain tundra, the peaks are stony placers. The plain trans-Urals areas are divided between the forest-steppe and steppe zones. In the south, meadow, and forb- grass steppes alternate with pine forests, pine-birch groves, and birch groves.