Thu February 7, 2019
Forest Fire and Fungi: Losers, Winners and Strategies in the Post-fire Environment
SEE EVENT DETAILS
Speaker: Tom Bruns
Fire is an integral part of our western forest ecosystems, and our native plants are well known to be adapted to a variety of fire regimes that occur in our state. But what about our native fungi? Are they too adapted to fire? In this talk we will address that question by drawing from research conducted on the 1995 Mt Vision and the 2013 Rim fires, and from smaller scale experimental studies.
The main finding is that that there is a small set of fungi that rebound rapidly after fire. These are typically fungi that were uncommon in the pre-fire forest, or that are entirely restricted to post-fire settings. Most or all of these species appear to wait in the soil as spores or other propagules for decades between fire events. The identities and roles of these fungi will be discussed.
Tom Bruns is professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received an MS in Botany from the University of Minnesota in 1982, where he worked on insect mycophagy in the boletes, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Michigan in 1987. His publication record includes over 180 papers primarily in the fields of fungal ecology and systematics. He is best known for his work in ectomycorrhizal systems where he has contributed to our understanding of community and population structure, spore banks, mycoheterotrophic plants, spore dispersal, and molecular method development. He has mentored 18 PhD students and 19 postdoctoral associates.
He currently teaches three courses on mycology at Berkeley and has won the Weston Teaching Award from the Mycological Society of America in 2007, as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley for his efforts. He served as president of the Mycological Society of America in 2011-2012, the president of International Mycorrhiza Society from 2015-2017, and received the Distinguished Mycologist Award in 2018 from the Mycological Society of America for his career achievements in the field. More details on his early path into mycology can be gleaned from his interview for the Oral History for Mycology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
show less
Fire is an integral part of our western forest ecosystems, and our native plants are well known to be adapted to a variety of fire regimes that occur in our state. But what about our native fungi? Are they too adapted to fire? In this talk we will address that question by drawing from research conducted on the 1995 Mt Vision and the 2013 Rim fires, and from smaller scale experimental studies.
The main finding is that that there is a small set of fungi that rebound rapidly after fire. These are typically fungi that were uncommon in the pre-fire forest, or that are entirely restricted to post-fire settings. Most or all of these species appear to wait in the soil as spores or other propagules for decades between fire events. The identities and roles of these fungi will be discussed.
Tom Bruns is professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received an MS in Botany from the University of Minnesota in 1982, where he worked on insect mycophagy in the boletes, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Michigan in 1987. His publication record includes over 180 papers primarily in the fields of fungal ecology and systematics. He is best known for his work in ectomycorrhizal systems where he has contributed to our understanding of community and population structure, spore banks, mycoheterotrophic plants, spore dispersal, and molecular method development. He has mentored 18 PhD students and 19 postdoctoral associates.
He currently teaches three courses on mycology at Berkeley and has won the Weston Teaching Award from the Mycological Society of America in 2007, as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley for his efforts. He served as president of the Mycological Society of America in 2011-2012, the president of International Mycorrhiza Society from 2015-2017, and received the Distinguished Mycologist Award in 2018 from the Mycological Society of America for his career achievements in the field. More details on his early path into mycology can be gleaned from his interview for the Oral History for Mycology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
Speaker: Tom Bruns
Fire is an integral part of our western forest ecosystems, and our native plants are well known to be adapted to a variety of fire regimes that occur in our state. But what about our native fungi? Are they too adapted to fire? In this talk we will address that question by drawing from research conducted on the 1995 Mt Vision and the 2013 Rim fires, and from smaller scale experimental studies.
The main finding is that that there is a small set of fungi that rebound rapidly after fire. These are typically fungi that were uncommon in the pre-fire forest, or that are entirely restricted to post-fire settings. Most or all of these species appear to wait in the soil as spores or other propagules for decades between fire events. The identities and roles of these fungi will be discussed.
Tom Bruns is professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received an MS in Botany from the University of Minnesota in 1982, where he worked on insect mycophagy in the boletes, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Michigan in 1987. His publication record includes over 180 papers primarily in the fields of fungal ecology and systematics. He is best known for his work in ectomycorrhizal systems where he has contributed to our understanding of community and population structure, spore banks, mycoheterotrophic plants, spore dispersal, and molecular method development. He has mentored 18 PhD students and 19 postdoctoral associates.
He currently teaches three courses on mycology at Berkeley and has won the Weston Teaching Award from the Mycological Society of America in 2007, as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley for his efforts. He served as president of the Mycological Society of America in 2011-2012, the president of International Mycorrhiza Society from 2015-2017, and received the Distinguished Mycologist Award in 2018 from the Mycological Society of America for his career achievements in the field. More details on his early path into mycology can be gleaned from his interview for the Oral History for Mycology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
read more
Fire is an integral part of our western forest ecosystems, and our native plants are well known to be adapted to a variety of fire regimes that occur in our state. But what about our native fungi? Are they too adapted to fire? In this talk we will address that question by drawing from research conducted on the 1995 Mt Vision and the 2013 Rim fires, and from smaller scale experimental studies.
The main finding is that that there is a small set of fungi that rebound rapidly after fire. These are typically fungi that were uncommon in the pre-fire forest, or that are entirely restricted to post-fire settings. Most or all of these species appear to wait in the soil as spores or other propagules for decades between fire events. The identities and roles of these fungi will be discussed.
Tom Bruns is professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He received an MS in Botany from the University of Minnesota in 1982, where he worked on insect mycophagy in the boletes, and a PhD in Botany from the University of Michigan in 1987. His publication record includes over 180 papers primarily in the fields of fungal ecology and systematics. He is best known for his work in ectomycorrhizal systems where he has contributed to our understanding of community and population structure, spore banks, mycoheterotrophic plants, spore dispersal, and molecular method development. He has mentored 18 PhD students and 19 postdoctoral associates.
He currently teaches three courses on mycology at Berkeley and has won the Weston Teaching Award from the Mycological Society of America in 2007, as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley for his efforts. He served as president of the Mycological Society of America in 2011-2012, the president of International Mycorrhiza Society from 2015-2017, and received the Distinguished Mycologist Award in 2018 from the Mycological Society of America for his career achievements in the field. More details on his early path into mycology can be gleaned from his interview for the Oral History for Mycology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch
show less
Date/Times:
San Francisco County Fair Building (Hall of Flowers)
1 Upcoming Events
1199 9th Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94122
The Best Events
Every Week in Your Inbox
From Our Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
Great suggestion! We'll be in touch.
Event reviewed successfully.