Survey of Local Mushroom Population

I decided to do an organism survey of a species of mushroom located at the Veterans Memorial Park in Mountlake Terrace. The area is made up of wet grass, moss, taller grass and shrubs, various evergreen plants, and conifers and douglas firs. Across the middle of the grassy clearing in the middle of the park is several species of mushrooms. The area is fairly well shaded with lots of moisture from a nearby stream. Many of the mushrooms were growing in the wettest areas of the grass next to moss, and there was also lots of mushrooms near an old stump. Very few of the mushrooms were located near the trees surrounded by dirt. The only issues with doing sampling in this area were all the fallen branches and sticks to trip over, and the occasional person playing with their dog.

There was many interesting mushrooms growing at the park, but the most widely spread species was a small, brown mushroom that was growing in clumps all across the grass. I spent a lot of time trying to identify the exact species, but as it turns out "little brown mushrooms" or LBM's grow in abundance, so identification is a little fuzzy. I would say the species I was sampling was likely some type of Conocybe.

Across my transect there was a total of 236 of these Conocybe mushrooms. The average amount per quadrant was 19.66. The largest clump of 36 was growing in a very wet patch of grass between the old stump and fallen tree. The smallest clump, a single lonesome mushroom, was growing closest to the park near some of the dry dirt near the trees. Many of the clumps seemed to be separated from each other by 3-7 feet of space, sometimes with 1-2 lonesome mushrooms growing in between them. It was interesting to see how far apart the clumps were from each other, especially when the mushrooms located in a clump were growing very close together.






The habitat and terrain seemed to play a big part in where the mushrooms were located. Most of them seemed to prefer the wettest areas in the middle of the grass. Very few were located nearest to the cement paths, with the smallest amounts being near the picnic area and playground. I also noticed that another species of whiter, larger mushroom was growing in a little line. None of the little brown mushrooms that I was doing a survey of seemed to grow near this other species, but were alright with growing near other types in the park. It's likely that this other species was hogging the resources and nutrients of the area it occupied.

 I can definitely see how a population survey like this can be used to assess the distribution of other species and populations. From my survey, I was able to see that the mushrooms did not prefer the environment closest to the playground and cement areas. If this species of mushroom were endangered, I would be able to assume that the mushrooms needed a certain type of habitat to thrive, and would be able to help them by protecting their favorite habitat to grow in. This kind of information is useful to people trying to help endangered species by using the information gathered to protect the habitat that they do best in.