Diversity and Ecology of Wild Mushrooms of Riparian Zone of Lake Kivu, Rwanda

Abstract

Fungi are among the most diverse group of living organism s on earth, though inadequately studied worldwide and especially in Rwanda . The main objective of this study was to assess the diversity and describe the ecology of mushrooms species in Rwanda in order to develop a baseline that can help for further studie s on fung i in the country. The Macromycetes diversity and distributi on of the riparian zone of Lake Kivu were studied by plot - based mushroom survey s at 3 study sites ( Mariri, Mpangara and Nyakarwa ) and simple rand om searches in the garden of the M useum of E nvironment, from September 2016 to June 2017. More than 64 mushroom species were recorded, collected, dried and their specimens are conserved in the M useum of Environment of Karongi, Rwanda . A total of 64 species were collected , belong ing to 8 orders, 2 6 families and 40 genera. It was reveale d that the riparian zone of Lake Kivu is dominated by Agaricales, an order represented by 52 species , 81% of all species collected. The total order/family ratio of 0.31, family/genus ratio of 0.65 and genus/species r atio of 0.63 is an indicator of high fam ily and generic diversity in the collections . Families highly represented in collections with the most number of species a re Agaricaceae with 18 species, Tricholomataceae with 10 species and Psathyrellaceae with 5 sp ecies. In this study, Termitomyces medius was collected and recorded for the first time in Rwanda. This study has provided 14 new records on the list of mushroom species in Rwanda. Moreover, the study has also provided other 43 potential new records which were identified to genus level . More number of mushrooms species was recorded in Nyakarwa F orest and Sorenson similarity matrix calculated showed dissimilarity richness and distribution of mushrooms species among 4 sites surveyed during this study. During the study period, the number of sp ecies present increased with rainfall . The most species were recorded and collected in December and decreased to 0 in the June dry season .