Ecological roles of fungi include

1
Ecological roles of fungi include

• saprobic species for
• Plant resources
• Processed plant resources
• pathogenic species for hosts

2
Importance of fungi to soil biomass
3
Dung successions

• Recycle nutrients from major nutrient resource
• Basis of a food web fungi ? invertebrates
• Succession of fungal groups zygomycete ?
  ascomycete ? basidiomycete
• Time to sporulation ? even spore distribution

4
Coprophilous fungi

• Spore dispersal mechanisms some fungi are
  dependent on being eaten for their dispersal
• 175 species of ascomycetes are largely or
  exclusively found on dung
• Herbivore NOT carnivore why?
• Some fungi are dependent on dung for growth
  factors, e. g. Pilobolus (cap thrower)

5
Pilobolus crystallinus

• Orienting mechanism
• Positive prototropism
• Sporangium release and attachment
• Nutritional requirements

6
The humungous fungus

• A. bulbosa, 15 ha in northern Michigan
• A. ostoyae, 900 ha in Oregon
• A single individual?

7
Proving the size of a single very large
subterranean fungus

• Bait soil with wooden sticks
• Collect fruiting bodies
• Grow mycelium and mate in Petri dishes
• DNA fingerprinting

8
Rhizomorphs contribute to the success of
Armillaria species

• some of the largest individuals on earth
• Rhizomorphs rootlike mycelial strands
• Support spread between localized nutrient sources

Alan Rayner, A century of mycology
9
Armillaria species are tree root pathogens
www.apsnet.org/education/IllustratedGlossary/Photo
sN-R/rhizomorph.htm
10
Armillaria basidiocarps
11
Successions on conifer needles
Thysanophora
Lophodermium pinastri can colonize living
needles as an endophyte fruits after needlefall
? Fusicoccum pycnidia attack centre of needle
Thysanophora sclerotia ?
12
Serpula lacrymans causes dry rot
www.hussvamp-lab.dk/ nyhedsbreve/oktober2000.htm
www.dgfm-ev.de/www/ eng/projekte/print/pdj2004.htm

13
Serpula rhizomorphs and dry rot
brown rot fungi degrade cellulose, but not
lignin
www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/images/dryrot2.jpg
www.geo-lab.de/ schimmel.htm
14
Dry rot

• Rhizomorphs transport water from damp to dry
  areas
• Causes invaded wood to dry and crack
• Can penetrate but not feed on masonry
• Sensitive to warm dry environments

www.diydoctor.org.uk/projects/images/dryrot2.jpg