ABSTRACT
The kingdom Fungi is extraordinarily diverse. Since the fungal-mycelial network becomes an integral internal portion of the decomposing litter, fungal mass cannot be readily separated and measured by direct microscopy in the same fashion as can bacteria. An alternative assay for fungal mass in decaying litter involves the use of a biochemical index, namely ergosterol. The principal location of ergosterol is within the plasma membranes of fungal cells, so dead, evacuated hyphae containing no cytoplasm would not be expected to contribute to fungal-ergosterol yield. It estimates of fungal mass based on ergosterol are likely to be estimates of living mass. A distinct advantage has been built onto the ergosterol method for estimating fungal mass: one can now also rapidly estimate fungal specific growth rate (μ) as the rate of synthesis of ergosterol. The instructions for measurement of acetate incorporation into ergosterol are derived from Newell and Fallon.
