Thursday 6 August 2015

Postgraduate Seminar Series 6th August 2015


Decay in the canopy: investigating saprotrophic communities in attached angiosperm branches
 

Anna Rawlings

 
 
 
Our speaker today is Anna Rawlings. Anna completed her master’s degree in Environmental Biology here at Swansea University and is now currently in the first year of her PhD, looking at fungal community ecology.

 
Abstract:

Assemblages of wood rotting fungi often begin to develop in the canopy yet efforts to describe decay communities have focused almost exclusively on the later stages of decay on the woodland floor.  Although generally successional in nature, it has been hypothesised that various community development pathways may arise depending upon the degrees of abiotic and biotic stress present within the substrate with abiotic conditions ameliorating and competitive stress increasing as decay advances.  I plan to use traditional culturing methods alongside modern molecular techniques and 3D modelling to map communities of wood-rotting fungi in attached branches and to investigate the role that abiotic and competitive stressors play in shaping them.

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