A Survey of Freshwater Ascomycetes from the Neotropics

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL

Investigators

Abstract

Freshwater ascomycetes are microscopic fungi that decompose dead plants and wood in aquatic habitats. These fungi play an important role in aquatic food webs by breaking down complex plant materials into more digestible components that can then be used by aquatic invertebrates and bacteria as a food source. Despite evidence of the ecological role of freshwater ascomycetes as decomposers in water, there is a lack of knowledge of their identities, geographical distributions, species diversity patterns, and evolutionary relationships. The continued degradation and loss of aquatic habitats due to anthropogenic activities make it imperative to study these fungi now from undisturbed habitats that still exist. Drs. Carol Shearer and Andrew Miller and their students will collect, identify, and isolate freshwater ascomycetes along an altitudinal gradient from the tropical Andes to the Amazonian Basin in southeastern Peru. This region, currently nearly unstudied for freshwater ascomycetes, is a global conservation priority area and one of the few remaining large tracts of forests extending from the tree line to the lowlands. The ecological habitats from tree line to lowlands lie along a climate gradient that will allow the investigators to determine how climate influences species composition. The health and sustainability of freshwater ecosystems are relevant to a broad scope of political, economic, societal and public health interests. For aquatic ecosystems which are vital to humankind biologically, commercially and aesthetically, but which suffer from numerous anthropogenic activities, there an urgent need to understand the species responsible for ecological function and ecosystem health. This project will provide student training in the collection, identification and isolation of freshwater ascomycetes, which perform the vital function of decomposing dead matter in freshwater ecosystems. The researchers will establish cultures of these fungi that will constitute a diverse source of new genetic living stocks. These cultures will provide material for systematic, developmental, physiological, molecular, and ecological studies. The researchers will contribute voucher specimens, cultures and molecular sequences to established repositories, thereby providing material and data for future studies, including molecular assessment of biodiversity by ecologists. In addition to publishing the results of their study in scientific journals, the scientists will place descriptions of new and unusual species on the Freshwater Ascomycetes Web Site (http://fungi.life.uiuc.edu/).