Talk: Ectomycorrhizal fungi diversity in Ku-ring-gai Chase

Registration recommended but not essential

2:30 pm, Saturday 12 April St Andrews Uniting Church, corner of Vernon Street and Chisholm Street, Turramurra

Margarita Gil-Fernández was the winner of our research grant in 2023. She will present a talk entitled Hidden resilience warriors: Ectomycorrhizal fungi diversity in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park and surrounding urban reserves.

Fungi are known to form important associations with the roots of trees. Within these, ectomycorrhizal fungi (EMF) are essential in keeping forests healthy by enhancing the trees’ use of water and providing them with soil minerals. In urban reserves, EMF are even more important because of stressors in these habitats such as increased heat and air pollution. Moreover, as EMF depend largely on small mammals to be dispersed, the continuity of these interactions in urban reserves is essential. To understand these associations, we studied the EMF community diversity in small mammal scats and soil samples in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park (KNP) and surrounding urban reserves. We will present our main findings, including insights into the distribution and diversity of EMF in KNP and urban reserves and the mammals that disperse them.

Margarita is a biologist, focused on the study of mammal ecology. Throughout her career she has studied wild cats, such as ocelots in Mexico, jaguars in Costa Rica, and other carnivores such as red foxes in Australia. After this she worked in forestry, with a focus on forest health in Mexico. Through this position, she got involved in a field project on rodents and their ecology in response to anthropogenic disturbance. This took her to her next step, a PhD, where she is studying how small mammals are affected by anthropogenic disturbance in Australia and Mexico. Her research includes several aspects of small mammal ecology, including interactions with mycorrhizal fungi, ectoparasite loads and associated pathogens, as well as human attitudes towards small mammals.

Contact: Helen Wortham (0423 534 148)