Ecological niche modelling of Cantharellus species in Benin, and revision of their conservation status. (December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dramani, Ramdan; Gouwakinnou, Gérard N.; Houdanon, Roel D.; De Kesel, André; Minter, David; Yorou, Nourou S.
• Is Part Of: Fungal ecology. Volume 60(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-12
• Subjects: Fungi -- Species distribution model -- Threatened species -- Gallery forest -- Fungal red list; Fungi -- Ecology -- Periodicals; Mycology -- Periodicals; 579.517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.funeco.2022.101174
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1754-5048

Abstract

Abstract: Of the eight Cantharellus species known from Benin, seven have been encountered under similar macroecological conditions. The present work attempts to generate a more complete distribution of these seven species. Forty-eight occurrences of the target species and four explanatory variables including three bioclimatic variables and a land cover variable were used to build an ensemble model from five modelling approaches under the Biomod2 package of R software. Results showed a distribution restricted to the Bassila and Atacora mountain range phytogeographic districts with excellent statistical performance (TSS = 0.98, AUC = 0.99). This distribution is governed mainly by high soil moisture and high potential evapotranspiration, thus defining only gallery forests as the most suitable habitat for chanterelles in Sudano-guinean and Soudanese ecozones of Benin. Based on IUCN criterion B1 and sub-criteria B1a and B1c(i), these seven species were categorized under the Endangered (EN) threat category according to our results.