Lichenicolous fungi are more specialized than their lichen hosts in primeval forest ecosystems, Białowieża Forest, northeast Poland

Taxonomy and diversity of symptomatic lichenicolous fungi (visible as fruitbodies on lichen thalli, their discoloration, and/or deformation) and their specificity to lichen hosts is becoming more and more studied. However, information on their ecology is still scarce. We assess how large the specialization of these fungi towards their hosts and microhabitat is. Epiphytic, epixylic and epigeic lichens and associated lichenicolous fungi were studied on 144 permanent plots in Białowieża Forest in relation to forest communities, species of tree phorophyte and substrates. On all these three studied levels lichenicolous fungi were more specialized than their lichen hosts. Our study provides the first estimation of ecological dependences between associations of lichenicolous fungi and their hosts, microhabitats and forest communities in a primeval forest ecosystem representative of lowland Europe.