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Tree Canopy Biodiversity (Myxomycetes, macrofungi, mosses, liverworts and lichens) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Published by National Park Service | Department of the Interior | Metadata Last Checked: January 07, 2026 | Last Modified: 2016-10-11T00:00:00Z
PI and his team used ropes to scale trees of primarily five species (ash, tulip poplar, red maple, white pine, and white oak) and describe fungi, myxomycetes (slimemolds), mosses, liverworts, lichens, and ferns from tree canopies and at different heights along the trunk. In addition to basic inventory work, they described a new species of slimemold and determined that slimemold diversity did not change with height on a tree, but did change with the pH of the bark. They found several species that had been rarely encountered in ground-based surveys to be quite common in the canopies. Some sites high in trees built up considerable soil, along with springtails and other soil-dwelling invertebrates.

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