Potential factors influencing moist chamber myxomycete assemblages

This paper reports studies of myxomycete growth in a Petri dish. Topics investigated include the constancy of the number of species obtained from a sample, the total volume of the fruiting bodies harvested from samples of the various substrates, the effects of different sampling procedures in the field or in the laboratory, and the pattern of fruiting body harvest with time. Because of random variation the factors controlling growth are not obvious unless studied with large data sets.