Panel 4: fungal productivity

We measured rates of fungal production as rates of incorporation of [¹⁴C]acetate into ergosterol, and converted values to rates of production of fungal mass using an experimental conversion factor (12.6 µg fungal organic mass nmol^-1 acetate incorporated). As for living fungal mass, fungal productivity showed little variation with year or height on shoot, but there was a trend upward from summer to spring for the 3 years of data. Annualized values: 535 g organic fungal mass produced m^-2; 6 billion ascospores ejected m^-2; 6,000 tonnes fungal mass produced in the 11 km² of the Sapelo Island Nat'l Estuarine Research Reserve.

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