Mushrooms serve as 'main character' in most ecosystems:
A team of Western mycologists (fungi experts) spent the past two summers digging deep in Newfoundland dirt to investigate the might of mushrooms and found what lies beneath truly is 'the main character' in most terrestrial ecosystems.
Fungi, which produce mushrooms, are critically important in most earthbound ecosystems as they provide life-sustaining mineral nutrients to plants while decomposing their remains, and recycling both organic and inorganic byproducts throughout the biome as they grow and reproduce.
"A lot of ecologists are beginning to realize that mushrooms really run the world. We've quite naturally spent a lot of our time focusing on things above ground, things that we see like plants, animals, and birds," said Western biology professor Greg Thorn. "But in fact, the plants are very closely associated with fungi, and basically wouldn't be there (above ground) without them."
[...] Katarina Kukolj, a master's student in the Thorn lab, leads a study investigating the effects of the edible blewit mushroom (Lepista nuda) on the soil environments in coastal regions of Newfoundland, specifically in the community of Lumsden.
Building on Thorn's research, Kukolj wants to know how and why blewits basically 'attack' microfauna (microscopic animals and organisms) living in the soil and serving as nature's vacuum cleaner by eating bacteria, decomposing surplus nutrients, and producing new ones.
[...] Kukolj believes her research could also provide important supporting data for the use of blewits as a biopesticide in organic farming. Blewitt mushrooms would be an environmentally friendly alternative to some synthetic chemical pesticides. They're also non-toxic and there would be no leaching into the waterways.
[...] Alicia Banwell, also a master's student in the Thorn lab, is focused on forestry regeneration and the role fungi plays in replenishing Canada's forests.
When a forest, like the one Banwell studies in Gander Bay, Newfoundland, is deforested, often nursery-grown tree seedlings are planted at the deforested site to replace the forest for the next generation.
While these seedlings are growing in the nursery during the first few years of their life, they develop a fuzzy mat of fungi connected to their roots, called ectomycorrhizal fungi.
The forest also develops its own fuzzy mat of ectomycorrhizal fungi, which can be seen by pulling up the top layer of moss and soil. These fungi form an underground network in the forest, which allows trees connected within network to transfer resources such as carbon, nitrogen, and other important nutrients among each other, in addition to producing many edible mushrooms, such as chanterelles.
[...] "People are using mushrooms for all kinds of things that hadn't been thought of before. Mushrooms are being used to create Styrofoam alternatives, meat substitutes for vegan foods, and even new medicines. There are all kinds of novel antibiotics being developed from mushrooms. It's amazing and it's an exciting time to be studying mushrooms."
(Score: 2) by crafoo on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:47PM
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/environment/2021/06/25/cicada-2021-brood-x-fungus-parasite-like-organism-turns-bugs-into-zombies/5318157001/ [indystar.com]
I wanted to link this because it's fungus related, but mostly because of the web site itself. it's just so great.
(Score: 2, Disagree) by legont on Tuesday August 30 2022, @10:51PM (7 children)
Fungi mushroom with the only goal of being eaten. It's their way to propagate. You collect them then shit or clean them in a different place where they will grow. It's sad that Americans don't collect mushrooms much. It's bad for mushrooms.
BTW, I belive it's the reason some of them have special properties specifically targeting human receptors.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 30 2022, @11:15PM (6 children)
OK, I read your post with interest. And, I'm thinking, "aren't most fungi spores designed to be air borne to a new location?" I'm thinking along the lines of dandelions and such, that rely on the wind heavily (or, not so heavily?) A quick search found dozens of hits that seemed to support the wind borne idea. https://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/dispersal.html [anbg.gov.au]
I'm not going to say that some fungi aren't spread better, faster, further, or whatever by having their spores ingested by animals. But, I don't think that's really common in the fungi world. Feel free to enlighten us further!!
FWIW, I've begun taking stock of fungi on my own property. I've identified several, but I don't think my garden area has much if any fungi in it. I'm looking at ideas to correct that problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNBd-y254vM [youtube.com]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCBJ0rXwILY [youtube.com]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Barenflimski on Tuesday August 30 2022, @11:46PM (2 children)
There are all sorts of fungi spores you can buy for your garden. You shouldn't have to do this more than once for an entire garden, if its healthy. They'll replicate year over year, but may need an initial kick. This is one of many reasons no-till gardening is good. If you don't turn that soil, you don't break up the fungi, thereby drying it out and/or stunning/stunting it.
Here is just one of many examples -> https://fungi.com/collections/mycogrow [fungi.com]
Some seeds you buy come already "inoculated." That means they've been coated in a fungus or bacteria that is beneficial to it, that work in tandem to help the growth of the seed, and vice versa.
One example are peas. If you are trying to build your soil growing peas in the fall, you get the ones that are "inoculated" so that you fix more nitrogen. The how and why is a fun rabbit hole worth descending into one day.....
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:11AM
Those inoculants are bacterial, rather than fungal. I think there are several different bacteria, maybe 7 or 8, maybe more. One inoculant is good for peas and vetch, another good for almost all beans, all of them related, but specialized for a specific group of plants.
That Mycogrow looks interesting, I'm adding that to my list! Among the bits of advice I've accumulated, is that you want primarily native fungi in your yard and garden. That is, if it's been growing in your neighborhood for a million years, it's probably good for your garden. Foreign stuff may or may not thrive in your local conditions, or with your local foliage.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:58PM
In case anybody else wants to try it, some years back I bought plug spawn from these guys [fungi.com] after a hurricane took down a major limb off the apple tree in the back yard and I thought it would be fun to grow our own mushrooms. They send you a ziplock bag with a bunch of Ikea-like wooden dowels covered in mycelium that you are supposed to insert into holes in logs that you drilled; then you're supposed to place the log in a place where it will stay cool and moist to give the mycelium a chance to colonize the wood and produce the fruiting bodies we think of as the "mushrooms."
It's been about a decade and I have never once gotten mushrooms out of the thing, but somebody else might have better luck. YMMV.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by legont on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:58AM
Based on my personal experience, where mushrooms are collected, there are always more mushrooms. You might say it's because there were more mushrooms to begin with, but that's not clearly the case; in my experience anywhay. Different peoples collect different mushrooms. What's interesting, when foreigners collect mushrooms of their liking, there are more of them at that particular place. It can be observed in Finland where Russians and Finns have different tastes.
It's perhaps unrelated, but let me tell this story. My property has many mushrooms, but most are not eatable nor tasty. There is one mushroom though that I like very much - honey mushroom - that I'd find every now and then.
So, once upon a time I decided to cut clean some bushy under-grows. It grew up again the next year and I cut it again. The next year I collected about 30-50 pounds of honey mushrooms at this spot. Why? They were obviously in simbiotic relationships with the under-grows and when I killed it the mushrooms were about to die and decided to go all in on procreation. Feeling guilty, I did move half of my catch over my hikes in the woods and ate the rest.
Mushrooms are mysterious.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 31 2022, @01:22AM
With the current rains (and previous dry years) we are having quite a mushroom bloom at the moment. It seems to go like that with mushrooms, boom and bust years. Nobody is worrying about fungal spores having trouble spreading around here this year.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 31 2022, @02:07AM
Forgot to mention, I do have quite a few blewit mushrooms every year, but I don't like them. That's probably because where I am from they were considered very low key. However, I just checked wiki and they are cultivated in Britain, Netherlands, and France. I was very surprised, actually.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 2) by Barenflimski on Tuesday August 30 2022, @11:38PM (4 children)
When I compost large piles of leaves, one of the things I'm looking for is the growth of mold and fungi. They do a large part of the breakdown. If you don't get a good mold in there, your compost wont be as rich, and may not break down completely.
I plant rye grass as well as the roots tear holes in everything, but that is for another story...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:45AM
Neat! We don't eat much bread and the end of the loaf often has moldy bits that we add to the compost. I was doing it for convenience (minimize the landfill trash), but now you suggest that adding mold to the composter is a good idea in it's own right.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 31 2022, @01:28AM
I compost whatever falls in the yard, mostly branches and moss, but also green weeds, etc. The brush pile usually runs between five and eight feet high, even as I have been adding a foot per month of material on top for the last 10 years. Definitely fungal decomposition going on inside.
When we had a nature preserve (aka swamp) behind our property, I would clear trails and make tall piles of branches that would all but disappear into the loam within six months or so.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday August 31 2022, @01:31AM
We've done rye grass here a few winters, but between the worms and moles, ryegrass roots are pretty redundant.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday August 31 2022, @03:03PM
I saw a talk (maybe TED talk) about leaves as compost, and I've replicated the success in my garden. The critical step is using the leaf blower as a vacuum, which forces the leaves through the impeller and does a light chopping. I won't even bother to pile them anymore; I just spread it over my dormant garden bed with great results.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 30 2022, @11:53PM (1 child)
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 31 2022, @12:51AM
OT
Alas poor Yorick -- that was the name given to the full sized plastic skull that sat outside the door to the urban commune (c 1978). Deep in the eye sockets were a couple of photo diodes connected to some TTL logic. Waving your hand in front of the eyes in the proper sequence activated a solenoid that opened the door...
Of course it didn't work at night if the light bulb burned out in the hall, so instead of carrying a key, it might have made more sense to carry a flashlight?
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday September 01 2022, @02:47AM
Read Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard.
It's the autobiography of one of the researchers that discovered the importance of fungi to forest health.
Among other things, she discovered that lodgepole pines grow better then there are a few birches around.
-- hendrik