Forest Fungi: Biology, Ecology, and Systematics

The Pacific Northwest is home to Earth's most magnificent forests. For those who take the time to look down, an autumn hike in one of these forests will reveal a wide and colorful variety of the fungal reproductive structures known as mushrooms. But these are more than attractive woodland decorations, for the fungi that produce them are vital parts of the forest ecosystem. Truly, without the fungi, there would be no forests. At all. Anywhere.

In this 1-quarter, upper-division-science program, students will get to know many of the several thousand species of mushroom-fungi in the Pacific Northwest, develop skills necessary to identify many more, discover how they are classified, learn something of their fundamental biology, and explore their critical ecological roles as decomposers, mutualistic symbionts, and pathogens in our forests.

In lectures and through readings and discussions, we will explore basic fungal biology - what makes a fungus a fungus? How does a mycelial organism function? Why does general biology, which usually is primarily animal-focused, often provide poor models for understanding fungi? With this understanding, we will be prepared to examine the essential roles that fungi play in forests and how their basic biological characteristics make them admirably suited for their ecological activities. We will focus heavily on the mycorrhizal symbiosis, especially ectomycorrhizas, but also consider the saprotrophic and pathogenic fungi. Weekly lectures, study question sets, small-group discussions, and class seminar sessions will promote thorough understanding of readings drawn from peer-reviewed journals and a variety of other sources.

We will spend considerable time in the field, including two 4-day field trips, to the Mt. Adams area and the Oregon coast, and additional day trips to carefully observe fungi in their natural habitats, gather data for group projects, and collect specimens for study and identification in the lab. Lab activities will include learning how to prepare accurate descriptions of the specimens' macroscopic and microscopic features, make scientifically valuable herbarium collections, and identify collected specimens to species (when possible) using dichotomous and synoptic keys and other taxonomic literature. In addition to describing and identifying collected specimens, students will be expected to learn to recognize a number of common Pacific Northwest mushroom species on sight. Associated lab lectures will introduce relevant field and lab procedures, then move to taxonomic surveys of the mushroom-fungi as traditionally classified, and, later in the quarter, finish with a review of the methods of molecular phylogenetics and examination of the impact that they are having on traditional classifications. Student products from the field and lab work will include a field notebook and lab journal documenting the specimens collected, set of herbarium collections, individual poster project, and small-group projects involving a comparison of the mushroom communities at two sites visited multiple times throughout the quarter.