Identifying soil fungal species and communities, and their environmental correlates, using high throughput DNA sequencing
Ms Julie Fielder1
1University Of Tasmania, Sandy Bay , Australia
Fungi affect all of us, yet they are cryptic in the extreme. Environmental sampling regimes using a new technology, high throughput DNA sequencing, were trialled to identify fungal communities, and their environmental relations, in a previously surveyed Tasmanian wet sclerophyll forest from which one hundred and nine species were known. There were 8781 Operational Taxonomic Units (species analogues) from four sites, and ten assemblages that were largely related to horizon, calcium, pH and the species and size of woody plants. There is a need to further explore these relationships on a broader landscape scale, to enable the development of adequate sampling protocols for comprehensive biodiversity surveys and ecological studies of fungi.
Biography:
Julie Fielder BSc(Hons) is a mycologist, botanist and researcher currently employed at the University of Tasmania School of Geography. Her current interests are soil fungal ecology, community structure, adequate sampling design, high-throughput DNA sequencing and teaching. She is aiming to expand her current research interests of soil fungal communities into a PhD project, to enable the development of a comprehensive environmental sampling protocol for fungal communities suited to Australian environments.
