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41
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Introduction
What are the consequences of global change on fungi – individuals, species, communities – and how can large scale datasets complemented by real-world and laboratory experiments be utilized to provide scientific answers to timely research questions and forecasts to advance general ecological knowledge and guide decision making for the management of forests and protected areas and species conservation.
If interested in a thesis, PhD or Postdoc please reach out via mail. Thanks
Additional affiliations
May 2020 - March 2023
November 2019 - May 2020
DFGE
Position
- Manager
Description
- Product specialist (Corporate Carbon Footprint calculation, Science Based Targets) and Development of a Web Plattform for sustainability management
November 2015 - November 2019
Bavarian Forest Nationalpark
Position
- Researcher
Education
October 2013 - July 2015
October 2010 - September 2013
Publications
Publications (41)
p>Thermal melanism theory states that dark-colored ectotherm organisms are at an advantage at low temperature due to increased warming. This theory is generally supported for ectotherm animals, however, the function of colors in the fungal kingdom is largely unknown. Here, we test whether the color lightness of mushroom assemblages is related to cl...
Recent global warming affects species compositions at an unprecedented rate. To predict climate‐induced changes in species assemblages, a better understanding of the link between species occurrence and climate is needed. Macrofungal fruit body assemblages are correlated with the thermal environment at the European scale. However, it is still unknow...
The Earth's ecosystems are affected by a complex interplay of biotic and abiotic factors. While global temperatures increase, associated changes in the fruiting behaviour of fungi remain unknown. Here, we analyse 6.1 million fungal fruit body (mushroom) records and show that the major terrestrial biomes exhibit similarities and differences in fruit...
Fruit body-forming fungi are hyperdiverse and of central importance for the functioning of ecosystems worldwide. They provide habitat and resources for other organisms and perform critical roles in carbon and nutrient cycling. Like in animals and plants, fungal coloration is expected to play a fundamental role in response to biotic and abiotic envi...
While the succession of terrestrial plant communities is well studied, less is known about succession on dead wood, especially how it is affected by environmental factors. While temperate forests face increasing canopy mortality, which causes considerable changes in microclimates, it remains unclear how canopy openness affects fungal succession. He...
Phylloporia is a widespread genus of Hymenochaetales ( Basidiomycota ) with polyporoid basidiomata found mainly in the tropics. Species of Phylloporia are predominantly parasitic of woody plant hosts, while some species grow as saprotrophs. Data on the genus is still scarce for tropical Africa, where we expect a high diversity given the high plant...
Despite host‐fungal symbiotic interactions being ubiquitous in all ecosystems, understanding how symbiosis has shaped the ecology and evolution of fungal spores that are involved in dispersal and colonization of their hosts has been ignored in life‐history studies. We assembled a spore morphology database covering over 26,000 species of free‐living...
Wood-inhabiting fungi (WIF), such as polypores, are extremely species-rich and play vital roles in the functioning of forest ecosystems as decomposers. Despite the importance of polypores, our knowledge of the diversity and distribution of these fungi is still poor in general and especially for West Africa. To advance our knowledge we here summaris...
The Black Poplar Mushroom Cyclocybe aegerita (syn. Agrocybe aegerita) is a white-rot fungus that naturally fruits from woody substrates, including buried wood. It is known for its substrate versatility and is equipped with a respective carbohydrate-active enzyme repertoire being intermediate between typical white-rot fungi and plant litter decompos...
Environments characterized by physical extremes harbor unique species diversity with particular adaptations. Cliffs are harsh environments for organisms but host a great diversity of specialized plants with many endemics, rare and even endangered species. It is, however, less known which fungal diversity the cliff habitats contain and whether it di...
Recent global warming affects species compositions at an unprecedented rate. To predict climate-induced changes in species assemblages, a better understanding of the link between species occurrence and climate is needed. Macrofungal fruit body assemblages are correlated with the thermal environment at the European scale. However, it is still unknow...
The reduction of deadwood due to forest management threatens saproxylic diversity. Therefore, deadwood needs to be preserved and enriched. While the importance of deadwood tree identity is well investigated, the value of different object types and microclimate for diversity is insufficiently understood. Conservation-oriented forest management, ther...
Forestry in Europe changed the tree species composition and reduced dead-wood amount and heterogeneity, and therefore negatively affected saproxylic diversity. Efficient conservation requires knowledge about the importance of the relevant diversity drivers across taxa. We examined the relative importance of space vs. host for saproxylic diversity a...
Understanding how species relate mechanistically to their environment via traits is a central goal in ecology. Many macroecological rules were found for macroorganisms, however, whether they can explain microorganismal macroecological patterns still requires investigation. Further, whether macroecological rules are also applicable in microclimates...
Forest species are affected by macroclimate, however, the microclimatic variability can be more extreme and change through climate change. Fungal fruiting community composition was affected by microclimatic differences. Here we ask whether differences in the fruiting community can be explained by morphological traits of the fruit body, which may he...
Climate change causes increased tree mortality leading to canopy loss and thus sun‐exposed forest floors. Sun exposure creates extreme temperatures and radiation, with potentially more drastic effects on forest organisms than the current increase in mean temperature. Such conditions might potentially negatively affect the maturation of mushrooms of...
Analyses of species functional traits are suitable to better understand the coexistence of species in a given environment. Trait information can be applied to investigate diversity patterns along environmental gradients and subsequently to predict and mitigate threats associated with climate change and land use. Species traits are used to calculate...
Although macroecology is a well-established field, much remains to be learned about the large-scale variation of fungal traits. We conducted a global analysis of mean fruit body size of 59 geographical regions worldwide, comprising 5340 fungal species exploring the response of fruit body size to latitude, resource availability and temperature. The...
Spatial and temporal processes shaping microbial communities are inseparably linked but rarely studied together. By Illumina 16S rRNA sequencing, we monitored soil bacteria in 360 stations on a 100 square meter plot distributed across six intra-annual samplings in a rarely managed, temperate grassland. Using a multi-tiered approach, we tested the e...
Trametes is a globally distributed genus of white-rot polypores and well sampled in temperate and boreal areas. However, the diversity, taxonomy, and phylogenetic positions of Trametes spp. are poorly known in tropical Africa. This study aims at documenting the diversity of Trametes species in Benin (tropical Africa) and their phylogenetic position...
Recent progress in remote sensing provides much-needed, large-scale spatio-temporal information on habitat structures important for biodiversity conservation. Here we examine the potential of a newly launched satellite-borne radar system (Sentinel-1) to map the biodiversity of twelve taxa across five temperate forest regions in central Europe. We s...
Bark protects living trees against environmental influences but may promote wood decomposition by fungi and bacteria after tree death. However, the mechanisms by which bark determines the assembly process and biodiversity of decomposers remain unknown. Therefore, we partially or completely removed bark from experimentally felled trees and tested wi...
Spores of mushroom-forming fungi are thought to be passively dispersed by wind. Studies of the spore morphology and ecological studies suggest, however, that dispersal by animals might also play a role. Since simultaneous and long-term observations of fungus-animal interactions are not feasible, we test the efficiency of time-lapse camera surveys f...
Spore characteristics of wood-inhabiting fungi suggest that wind is their predominant dispersal vector. However, since they are restricted to ephemeral habitats, colonizing new patches should benefit from dispersal by animals with similar habitat preferences because the directed, resource-searching movement of animals increases the likelihood of re...
Wood-inhabiting fungi are one of the most important groups of organisms as they contribute substantially to
carbon and nutrient cycles by decomposing dead wood. Current knowledge of their occurrence, distribution, and
drivers of their diversity derives almost exclusively from temperate and boreal forest ecosystems. We sampled
wood-inhabiting fungi...
The understanding of the biodiversity and biogeographical distribution of fungi is still limited. The small number of online databases and the large effort required to access existing data have prevented their use in research articles. The Mycology Collections Portal was established in 2012 to help alleviate these issues and currently serves data o...
Background:
The majority of wood decomposing fungi are mushroom-forming Agaricomycetes, which exhibit two main modes of plant cell wall decomposition: white rot, in which all plant cell wall components are degraded, including lignin, and brown rot, in which lignin is modified but not appreciably removed. Previous studies suggested that brown rot f...
Dead wood is a habitat for numerous fungal species, many of which are important agents of decomposition. Previous studies suggested that wood‐inhabiting fungal communities are affected by climate, availability of dead wood in the surrounding landscape and characteristics of the colonized dead‐wood object (e.g. host tree species). These findings ind...
Following disturbances, early-seral stages of forests provide a variety of structures. Whether this variety is a short-term phenomenon or influences forest succession for several decades or even longer is not known. We tested the hypotheses that after spruce dieback caused by bark beetles, a high spatial heterogeneity of stand structures will persi...
Questions
Questions (8)
If yes, is there a publication? And how long back is it possible/ has it been tried?
I'm searching for an easy method that allows for the differentiation of white- and brown rot decay fungi. I read about the Bavendamm test and also that it exhibits some weaknesses (Etheridge57).
I thought about a simple test with lignin and cellulose agar and the test would be if a cultivated fungus grows on the proposed substrate or not...
My definition of white rot is decay of cellulose and lignin independent of PODs and brown rot is just cellulose decay (RileySalamov14, KohlerKuo15).
I've searched a lot on wos with different inputs like "wood decay *" *=tempo, speed, rapid, time, weight loss... but didn't find anything.
But I found a paper who claims that brown-rot fungi decompose wood more rapidly (Gilbertson80).
Does anyone have anything about that topic?
Thank you very much!
Cheers, Franz
I need the type of mycorrhiza of all fungal species? Or a list containing this information? Does anyone know if this exists?
Thanks!
I'm searching for a measure of light availability on soil surface on a global scale. I thought about canopy cover or a direct measure of solar radiation.
I'm interested in how forests differ in their light regimen. Especially boreal and tropical forests in different ages. I think boreal forests are lighter than tropical forests, but I don`t find a paper.
In our project we have a lot of data collection in field. We need a tablet that copes with all kinds of weather and works at least 8 hours in field. Also data input via a pen or fingers should be easy and work well. Sunlight should not reduce visibility of the display. At the moment we favour Fujitsu Stylistic ST5112. The price should be in that range also (~ 2000€).
