Environmental effects on sporocarp counts over fourteen years in a forest area

The occurrence of fruit bodies of larger fungi growing in a coniferous forest in Northern Ireland was recorded from 1974 and the influences of temperature and rainfall on the production of sporocarps examined over a 14-yr-period. The largest sporocarp counts occurred in the autumns following the warmest four summers and the three lowest counts, with one exception, followed cold winters and cold May periods. There was a high statistical correlation between sporocarp counts and the means of average daily temperature for the period 2–4 months prior to recording dates over a 10-yr-period. Sporocarp counts also showed high correlation with rainfall for the period 3–5 months prior to recording; however, rainfall appeared to have little influence on the maximum counts obtained for each year. Correlation values suggested that rainfall for the first 2 d and the 7–14-d-period prior to recording reduced sporocarp production. Values for the maximum sporocarp count per year may be progressively declining.