Report of Arrhenia antarctica from James Ross Island, Antarctica

Vol.16,No.1(2026)

Abstract

In antarctic vegetation oases, development of mushrooms depends on moisture availability, substrate characteristics, and air/substrate temperature. In our study, we bring evidence of Arrhenia antarctica distribution at James Ross Island, as well as data on the species growth, formation of fruting bodies, for 2013/2014 austral summer season in particular. This is, to our best knowledge, first record of Arrhenia antarctica reported for James Ross Island in a research journal. Available microclimate data suggest that liquid water availability in austral summer season (January, Februray) combined with high air/moss surface temperature are the most important driving factors. However, occurence of fruting bodies is highly irregular between individual austral summer seasons. In some seasons within the 2010-2015 period, no fruiting bodies were observed at all.


Keywords:
Antarctics; fungal ecology; Macromycetae; pileus size; moss biodiversity
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