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European aspen is one of the most widely distributed trees in Central Europe and is a typical early colonizer of poor and disturbed soils. However, little is known about ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi in these ecosystems. We examined the ECM community of European aspen growing on a heavily contaminated site in southern Austria by analysing ECM roots, sorting them into morphotypes, subjecting them to DNA extraction, PCR, and DNA sequencing. ECM root symbionts were sampled two times in 2004. During this time, the below-ground community structure was relatively stable; we found no evidence of taxa adapted to summer or autumn conditions and only two species varied widely in occurrence between soil horizons. The ECM fungal community was diverse (54 species), rich in Basidiomycota (43 species), and dominated by Cenococcum geophilum and fungi with corticoid basidiomes (e.g. Thelephoraceae).

We analysed the diversity of yeasts from different soils in a river-floodplain landscape at the river Danube downstream of Vienna, Austria ("Nationalpark Donauauen"). 136 strains were isolated, identification of species was done with molecular methods. Partial sequencing of the 26S rRNA gene resulted in 36 different sequences, they could be assigned to 16 genera, apart from two sequence types (from three isolates), which were not clearly assigned to any genus. 18 species were identified and confirmed by means of PCR fingerprinting. The most frequently isolated genus was Cryptococcus (61 isolates and 12 sequence types). Basidiomycetes dominated with about 60% above the members of the Ascomycetes. About half the yeasts was isolated from the litter, the quantity decreased with soil depth.