SPORE DISPERSAL OF ECTOMYCORRHIZAL FUNGI ON A GLACIER FOREFRONT BY MAMMAL MYCOPHAGY

Fecal pellets of small mammals (chipmunks, marmots and pikas), mountai n goats and deer collected from the forefront of the rapidly receding Lyman Glacier in the North Cascade Mountains of Washington contained s pores of both hypogeous and epigeous, ectomycorrhizal fungi. The foref ront has been colonized by ectomycorrhizal hosts in the Pinaceae and S alix spp. Animal mycophagy thus provides inoculum for diversifying the populations of mycorrhizal fungi for early successional plants in the newly developing soils in this climatically stressful habitat.