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Tropical forests are a haven of biodiversity hosting the richest macrofungi in the World. However, the rate of forest loss greatly exceeds the rate of species documentation and this increases the risk of losing macrofungi diversity to extinction. A field study was carried out in Kereita, Kikuyu Escarpment Forest, southern part of Aberdare range forest to determine effect of indigenous forest conversion to plantation forest on diversity of macrofungi. Macrofungi diversity was assessed in a 22 year old Pinus patula (Pine) plantation and a pristine indigenous forest during dry (short rains, December, 2014) and wet (long rains, May, 2015) seasons. Field and laboratory methods included recording abundance and presence of fruiting bodies, taxonomic work and analysis of diversity in terms of density, species diversity indices and richness. A total number of 224 species were distributed across 28 families and 76 genera. Macrofungi species from families of Agaricaceae (20%), Mycenaceae (13%), Polyporaceae (10%) and Tricholomataceae (9%) were commonly represented taxa in the ecosystem. Most of the macrofungi recorded were saprophytic, mostly colonizing the litter and wood (41% and 36% respectively) based substrates, followed by soil organic matter species (15%). Ecto-mycorrhizal fungi (5%) and parasitic fungi (3%) were the least represented. Indigenous forests (natural ecosystems) recorded a wide range of mushroom assemblage (average of 6.5 species in a 400m plot and 3.5 individual fruiting bodies in 1m plot) compared to pine plantation forest. Conversion of indigenous forest to pine plantation altered species composition, but did not affect species diversity. More than 50% of the total macrofungi species were encountered during the wet season. Our results confirm diverse macrofungi community in forested ecosystems in Kenya, and need for their conservation.

Effects of Land Use on the Diversity of Macrofungi in Kereita Forest Kikuyu Escarpment, Kenya