University of Michigan
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Tom Bruns, Professor, Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, University of California at Berkeley

Host: Professor Timothy James

Coffee and cookies will be served at 4 p.m.

Abstract:

Fungi produce astronomical numbers of spores. This might lead one to believe that dispersal limitation is not an important determinant of fungal community assemblage, or that if it is, dispersal limits might only be reached at the regional or continental scales. In this talk I will present direct and indirect evidence to the contrary and show that fungal assemblages can be strongly shaped by dispersal limitation even at scales of less than a kilometer. I will also show that differences in the dispersal and establishment abilities of individual fungal species create a simple and predictable assemblage in early successional ectomycorrhizal pine communities, while the pattern of later successional communities appears to be much more stochastic. Finally I will present a model that depends on differences in fine-scale mycelial dispersal and root density gradients to explain the pattern of spatial zonation seen in early successional ectomycorrhizal communities.