Brian Ravenel
This outdoor lab was a great class and an excellent way to learn more about fungi, and its different niches, life cycles, and methods of identification. It was beneficial having two instructors available to have more opportunities to ask questions and hear them talk about personal experiences working with fungi for additional learning points and perspectives.
There were three main points that I took away from the field trip.
The first was that without fungi our planet would look very different than it is today. If woody material was left to break down at its own pace, then terrestrial earth would be covered in piles of dead logs slowly decomposing waiting for a fire to come along and hasten the process. This image really sunk in and was a great point in how vital fungi are to the cycle of life. I hope that we find a similar solution to the land fills we are creating today and maybe fungi can help provide an answer for a method of quickly degrading man-made products.
The second main point was that fungi can grow into immense organisms through their network of mycelium. The largest organism in the world record is currently being held by a parasitic fungus in Oregon state. Prior to this class I believed a fungus was mostly the mushroom itself and had no idea of the mycelium network that existed underground.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141114-the-biggest-organism-in-the-world
Third, a scientist can make a diagnosis on a tree's health by looking for signs of internal fungus invasion. The place I work has had a lot of large fallen branches during the past few wind storms and after this lab I went and looked at them and saw some evidence of poor health that Karina described on the field trip. While this is only one of a few factors it was interesting to look for signs such as discoloration of bark, black or white color liquid oozing out of the tree, and any fungi fruiting bodies growing from the tree itself.
It was also funny and useful to hear about the different ways to determine if a fungus is safe or not through smell, taste, and the physical indicators such as fungi structure, color, false and true gills, and size.
Pictures from lab field trip:
Image of lichen, a composite organism made up of a fungus, cyanobacteria, and alga.
Saprophytic species of Basidiomycota
Korena pointing out evidence of fungal invasion of tree, the black color and bleeding from trunk
It is amazing how fungi are important for our ecosystem. Besides other functions, fungi are the primary decomposers of dead trees and plants. I can't imagine how forest would look like without fungi.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I like how you proposed finding a way to clean the land fills with a method similar to used by fungi (to decompose plants). According to a research by Utah State University, fungi and bacteria are already used on a small scale for decomposition of land fills. They claim that fungi not only can decompose plants but also other organic matter such as cardboard, paint, glue, jeans, leather, and petroleum. I think this field is still under research and hopefully better results and implementations make way to a broader use of fungi in the decomposition of land fills.
http://www.herbarium.usu.edu/fungi/funfacts/Decay.htm
Hi Brian,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post and I'm happy to hear that the field trip had a lasting impression on you. You're very right about how vital fungi are to the cycle of life. Without them our forests would be very different and not all that pretty with the fallen and dead logs everywhere. I think you're on to something with using fungi to degrade man-made products. I hope we can utilize this natural tool to help clean up our mess in the environment. I also thought that fungi was mostly the mushroom itself too but I also found it amazing how large and how far the fungi mycelium can grow. I also thought it was cool how you applied what you learned to outside of class. Overall great pictures and great post!