CO2 and O2 gas exchange of brown and white rot fungi – destructors of coniferous debris

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Data are presented on a comparative analysis of carbon-oxygen gas exchange between basidiocarps of brown and white rot fungi and the coniferous wood they decay using the chamber method at 20°C. The ratio of CO2 and O2 volumes (characterizing the efficiency of the oxidative conversion of organic carbon into CO2) and CO2 emission activity (characterizing the intensity of the oxidative conversion of organic carbon into CO2) were assessed. It has been shown that the gas exchange of coniferous woody debris with brown and white rot is aerobic, and its carbon-oxygen balance is identical to the gas exchange of basidiocarps of the corresponding ecological and physiological groups of xylotrophic fungi and characterizes them as equally effective mineralizers: 70–80% of organic carbon is converted into CO2. The CO2 emission activity of woody debris with white and brown rot is close – for the former 0.11–0.12, for the latter 0.07–0.09 mg CO2/g/h – but for white rot it is 30–60% higher. The basidiocarps of brown rot fungi are distinguished by a higher respiration rate than that of white rot fungi, but in both cases it is many times higher (white rot fungi – 5–8 times, brown rot fungi – 11–90 times) higher than the CO2 emission activity of the wood they decay.