SouthEast Asia covers four of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. However, ecological information on fungi is scarce in the region. Fungi play the important roles in forest ecosystem processes such as carbon and nutrient cycling. Many studies on the vertical distribution of animals have been conducted, however, those of fungi is strictly limited. To reveal the vertical distribution of fungi, we collected fruiting bodies not only at the forest floor but also in canopies by using canopy crane in the Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. We focused on polypores in aphyllophorales because the fruiting bodies are long-lasting and this group has been taxonomically well described. Additional data included information on height stratum (high, middle, floor, logs), tree species, substrate characters (stage of decay, water content, density, and diameter of branches or wood debris), relative temperature and humidity, and relative photosynthetic photon flux density.

We collected 159 samples including 46 species. Ganoderma australe comp. was dominant at the logs. Nine species were observed only at high or middle stratums. The non-metric multi dimensional scaling showed the fungal species composition was different among the stratums. We will discuss the relationship between the fungal composition and substrate characters.