Collaborations
Adapting network science to fungal biology
Professor Mark Fricker
University of Oxford
Using high-grade, state-of-the-art microscopy, Professor Fricker and I adapt network-science tools and methods to study fungal mycelial networks and translate images of mycelia into quantitative network morphological data.
Determining biogeographical patterns of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in Australia
In a collaboration that grew out of my Humboldt Fellowship in Australia, Dr Frew and I are working together toward identifying the mechanisms that plants use to filter mycorrhizal fungi by using trait data collected on spores and fungal mycelia.
Dr. Adam Frew
Western Sydney University
Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment
Technical Co-Lead
Advancing fungal dispersal ecology through traits and data harmonization
Principal Investigator: Professor Bala Chaudhary Dartmouth College, USA
As part of this US$20 million project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA), I will assist in data analysis and training for project members, who are working to harmonize fungal dispersal trait data with DNA sequence-based taxon occurrence data to test trait-based predictions regarding the dispersal capabilities of fungi across spatial scales. This project will also assess the potential for fungal dispersal to buffer against the range shifts that are predicted to occur with global climate change. The work from this project will contribute to our understanding of global functional biodiversity and ecosystem function, and to help predict plant and human fungal disease outbreaks.
Collaborating Partner
Community assembly processes for fungi
Collaborators:
Professor Otso Ovaskainen
Dr. Nerea Abrego
University of Jyväskylä (Finland)
In this collaboration, Professor Ovaskainen, a leading expert on statistical ecology, and Dr. Abrego, a leading expert in using traits to understand community assembly processes of fungi, are working together on a data-synthesis project to determine what drives functional changes in fungal communities along urban gradients. We apply AI techniques to images in order to characterize biodiversity and use statistical techniques to analyze these functional changes.
Collaborating Partner
Understanding the role of spore traits in fungal interactions
Collaborators:
Professor Jeff Powell Western Sydney University Sydney, Australia
Professor Will Cornwell
University of New South Wales
Sydney, Australia
In this collaboration, we are working to link fungal traits to ecosystem processes using phylogenetic comparative approaches. From this collaboration, I have learned and continue to learn state-of-the art techniques to efficiently measure carbon respiration and biomass content as well as state-of-the-art methods for phylogenetic comparative analysis used in plants and animals.
