Degradation of Spartina lignocellulose by individual and mixed cultures of salt-marsh fungi

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Abstract
Spartina alterniflora tissue, either in the absence or presence of a nitrogen supplement, was inoculated with a single-species or a mixed-species inoculum of salt-marsh fungi. After 42 days of incubation at 25 °C, lignocellulose decomposition was determined by measuring the amount of residual total lignocellulose, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. A two-way analysis of variance of these results indicated an interaction between fungal treatments and nitrogen treatments. Pairwise comparisons of mean residual weights showed that all individual and mixed fungal inocula resulted in significant degradation of the total lingo-cellulosic, cellulosic, and hemicellulosic fractions of Spartina tissue with levels of decomposition ranging from approximately 16 to 40%, depending on the fungal – nitrogen treatment and the cell wall fraction examined. Lignin degradation was not detected for any of the treatments. Cultures with a mixture of fungi showed less decomposition than was observed for the most efficient decomposer when it occurred alone.