CSBR: Natural History: Critical Access and Storage for the Mycological Collections at the University of California, Berkeley

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

The fungi are critical components of all terrestrial ecosystems, where they play important roles as mutualists, parasites, and commensals in both plants and animals. Most of the world's important plant pathogens, such as chestnut blight, Dutch elm disease, oak wilt, and white pine blister rust are fungi. In addition, fungi are the primary decomposers responsible for recycling organic matter such as fallen leaves and downed trees. In this latter role they directly impact the global carbon cycle, even on a geological time scale. Herbaria are important repositories documenting the identity and characteristics of specimens collected in association with scientific studies. The University Herbarium of the University of California, Berkeley (UC) has been expanding its mycological collections to meet the demands for better understanding of fungi in California and across North America. This award will provide safe storage for fungal collections that are now housed inadequately in a condemned building. It will also support local citizen science groups participating in "mycoblitzes" who need scientific expertise for collecting and identifying material. Public workshops on various aspects of fungal biology will also be held. The UC herbarium has been expanding its mycological collections to support a diversity of research on fungi: Their taxonomy, geographic distribution, ecology, morphological traits, and DNA. A push is beginning to survey the continent of North America, and the herbarium will play a critical role in the North American Mycoflora project as it has many types and historical collections that are necessary to anchor species names and document historical ranges. The current fungal collection housed at UC has roughly 215,000 specimens, and contains over 2000 fungal type collections, and many other collections of historical value. There is insufficient space for all the specimens, particularly the important, threatened collections currently housed in a remote storage site in a condemned building. Expansion room to house these collections exists in the main herbarium space in a modern, recently renovated academic building on campus, but compactors, carriages, and cases are lacking to complete the task. Compactor carriages will be installed on existing rails; 108 new cases plus 86 existing cases will be placed on the carriages, completing a move of the fungal collections into one coherent, safe arrangement.