Mapping mycological ignorance – checklists and diversity patterns of fungi known for West Africa

Piepenbring, Meike; Maciá-Vicente, Jose G.; Codjia, Jean Evans I.; Glatthorn, Carola; Kirk, Paul; Meswaet, Yalemwork; Minter, David; Olou, Boris Armel; Reschke, Kai; Schmidt, Marco; Yorou, Nourou Soulemane

doi:10.1186/s43008-020-00034-y

IMA Fungus

Table 1 Current (and historical) names and surface areas of West African countries, known species diversity of plants according to literature, and known and estimated species diversity of fungi according to data in the checklist for fungi in West Africa

From: Mapping mycological ignorance – checklists and diversity patterns of fungi known for West Africa

							Estimated species richness of fungi
	Surface (km²)	Plant species (n)	Reference for plant species	Fungal records (n)	Fungal species (n)	Publications (n)	Chao^a	Bootstrap^a	Hawks-worth’s^b	Known richness (%)^c
WEST AFRICA	5,983,016	7072	A	16,222	4843	860	7485 ± 144	5900 ± 151	42,432	11.4
Benin (Dahomey)	117,034	2807	B	902	432	92	923 ± 85	543 ± 31	16,842	2.6
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)	274,748	2080	C, D	214	131	60	225 ± 28	166 ± 19	12,480	1.0
Gambia	10,354	1760^d	E	137	118	24	481 ± 122	157 ± 21	10,560	1.1
Ghana (Gold Coast)	240,496	2971	F	4121	1511	236	1798 ± 33	1785 ± 175	17,826	8.5
Guinea (French Guinea)	278,060	2923	G	1348	824	159	1957 ± 138	1056 ± 68	17,538	4.7
Guinea-Bissau (Portuguese G.)	32,182	1507	H	20	19	8	161 ± 157	25 ± 5	9042	0.2
Ivory Coast	323,544	3853	I, J	1736	1146	233	2958 ± 184	1488 ± 89	23,118	5.0
Liberia	96,024	2403	F	184	159	68	999 ± 282	213 ± 24	14,418	1.1
Mali (French Sudan)	1,263,106	1739	K	140	103	34	258 ± 52	134 ± 14	10,434	1.0
Niger	2,104,762	1218	L, M	123	85	30	169 ± 30	109 ± 13	7308	1.2
Nigeria	915,098	3378	F	2449	1273	281	2376 ± 106	1613 ± 69	20,268	6.3
Senegal	198,094	2300	N	499	277	90	511 ± 48	350 ± 28	13,800	2.0
Sierra Leone	72,154	1883^e	F	3564	1595^e	244	2307 ± 66	1966 ± 102	11,298	14.1
Togo	57,362	3134	O	785	517	107	1310 ± 123	665 ± 64	18,804	2.7

References for plant species:
A, Hepper (1972); B, Akoegninou et al. (2006); C, Thiombiano et al. (2012); D, Schmidt (2018); E, Jones (1994); F, Sosef et al. (2017); G, Lisowski (2009a, 2009b); H, Catarino et al. (2008); I, Aké Assi (2001); J, Aké Assi (2002); K, Boudet et al. (1986) cited by Zizka et al. (2015); L, Lebrun et al. (1983); M, Lebrun et al. (1996); N, Berhaut (1967) cited by Jones (1994); O, Fousseni et al. (2014)
^a Mean ± standard error of estimated species
^b Hawksworth’s index is calculated based on the ratio of 6 fungal species on all substrates:one vascular plant species (Hawksworth 1991)
^c Percentage of species known in a given area based the Hawksworth’s ratio
^d The only information available for species diversity of plants in Gambia was found in Jones (1994), who established that his selection of 160 species of flowering plants represent 10–12% of the total number of flowering plants in Gambia. We used the value of 11% to calculate a tentative number of known vascular plants for this country
^e Deighton (1903–1992), who worked as a botanist and mycologist in Sierra Leone for many years before being based at IMI, had a typescript checklist that he was continually updating long after his retirement. This typescript checklist was never published and has not been re-found (D.L. Hawksworth, pers. comm.). In 1990 this evidently included some 2050 fungal species as he then gave the number of plant species as about 4100 and the fungus:plant ratio as 0.5:1 (Hawksworth 1991). These figures have not been used in these calculations as in the absence of his manuscript the records could not be updated to current species concepts for plants or fungi

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ISSN: 2210-6359

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