Distribution of Fungal Spores and Fractal Diversity of Quadrats on Membrane Filters †.

In standard practice, estimations of populations of fungal spores on gridded membrane filter discs are made from spore loads in arbitrarily selected groups or rows of grids (quadrats). We used the resting spores of Synchytrium endobioticum to examine actual/expected spore ratio. The ratios showed unacceptable divergences, and are characterized by an aggregated spore distribution. The fractal diversity index of the quadrats is inversely related the loga of the population numbers. The analysis gives values for the appropriate spore number per quadrat and the quadrat pattern to yield the best actual/expected ratio.