Melbourne School of Land and Environment Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science

Project 2

Fire, fungi and ecosystem processes in forests

Tree nutrition, and consequently tree growth is strongly influenced by the nature and extent of their symbiosis with mycorrhizal fungi - an association that is particularly sensitive to the availability of soil nutrients. Availability of nutrients is in turn largely dependant on saprophytic fungi for release of nutrients by decomposition of dead plant and animal material. For example, wood decay fungi play an important role in concentrating nitrogen, taking a C:N ratio of between 100:1 and 500:1 in wood to a ratio of about 35:1 in the mycelium. In Australian sclerophyll forests, periodic wildfires disrupt the availability of nutrients but there is generally full recovery of the system over time. The aim of this PhD project will therefore be to explore the influence of fire on nutrient cycling by saprophytic and ectomycorrhizal fungi present in forest ecosystems. The application of the knowledge generated will lead to better informed land management decisions by contrasting the recovery of fungi after periodic high intensity wildfires with frequent low intensity prescribed fires.

This project is supervised by Dr Tina Bell and is associated with Bushfire CRC Project B3.1 (http://www.bushfirecrc.com/html/B31.htm).

Link to Bushfire Research and Developement Group

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