What do fungi do?

Ecology of Fungi

The defining characteristic of fungi is that they are excellent at rooting through their environments to dissolve and absorb nutrients. This is applied to ecosystems in two major ways:


    1. When plants colonized land after fungi, their primitive roots in the new terrain got a huge helping hand from associating with fungi that helped them acquire nutrients [1]Thus began the ~400 million year old[2] friendship of mycorrhiza - 'myco' meaning fungal and 'rhizo' meaning plant roots- wherein plants provide carbohydrates (sugars) to fungi in exchange for efficient nutrient absorption, water absorption, and even pathogen defense[3]

This emergent network can associate with multiple plants and chemically "communicate" environmental conditions. An entire forest with multiple species from both kingdoms (plant and fungi) can be connected, and thus protected. Excess nutrients can be stored for a rainy day or redistributed to nutrient-poor areas, older trees can transfer resources to help establish younger seedlings, and healthier trees can be allocated resources and sent signals to prepare defenses during blights[4]. When eaten, fungi can even confer immune resistance to animals and insects that may be endangered[5]. Mycorrhizal networks allow ecosystems dynamic response, a vital adaptation in the face of climate change. This evolutionary genius has come to be affectionately called "The Wood Wide Web"!


A conservative estimate of 95% of all plants associate with these masters of the soil! Not all plant-fungi associations are the same though; sometimes the fungi act as silent hijackers, captive slaves, slow parasites, pirates, aggressively competitive invaders, mothers, opportunists, etc. But they are always one thing for sure...
 
    2. Decomposers! Fungi are able to break down many carbon compounds including lignin, a main structural component of plants. They decompose dead organic material (dead trees, leaf litter, animals) and recycle it all back into the ecosystem. Because of their ability to process complex carbon chains, mycelium can be used to safely deal with soil contaminants like petroleum, pesticides, and even plastic [6]. Some of the best mushroom hunting is to be had in forests, for they behold bastions of death as much as they are teeming with life. 

Licensed under CC by 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons


The mycorrhizal partnership is a crucial ecological component of the soil that determines the success and variety of plant life, which, in turn, determines the nature of the ecosystem that will thrive there.  For this reason, there is much potential for the field of mycology to help rebuild destroyed ecosystems (tropical rainforest, monoculture farmlands, lumber forests, etc.) from the ground up. The kingdom of fungi is similar to the ocean floor and space in that we have only begun to explore its majesty. Join me in my quest to learn about these fun gals? All aboard, there's mushroom.

;)






[1] Brundrett M.C. (2002). "Coevolution of roots and mycorrhizas of land plants". New Phytologist. 154


[2] Remy W, Taylor TN, Hass H & Kerp H. (1994). "Four hundred million-year-old vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizae." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 91: 11841-11843.


[3] Taylor TN, Taylor EL (1996). "The distribution and interactions of some Paleozoic fungi". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 95 (1–4): 83–94. doi:10.1016/S0034-6667(96)00029-2


[4] Song Y.Y., Suzanne W. Simard, Allan Carroll, William W. Mohn & Ren Sen Zeng (2015). Defoliation of interior Douglas-fir elicits carbon transfer and stress signalling to ponderosa pine neighbors through ectomycorrhizal networks, Scientific Reports, 5 8495. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep08495


[5] Stamets, P., Naeger, N., Evans, J., Han, J., Hopkins, B.K., Lopez, D., Moershel, H., Nally, R., Sumerlin, D., Taylor, A., Carris, L., Sheppard, W. 2018. “Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees.” Scientific Reports 8, Article number: 13936


[6] Khan, S., et al., Biodegradation of polyester polyurethane by Aspergillus tubingensis, Environmental Pollution (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.03.012

No comments:

Post a Comment

Battarrea phalloides

 Dear Chloe, Brynnlee, and Finn, Hi guys! You won't believe what I saw the other day. Presenting to y'all, the great  Battarrea phal...