Climate change effects on plant-fungal interactions in wetland and heathland systems

Are you curious about how climate change will impact plant growth in wetland and heathland systems? We are looking for a motivated student to study how mutualistic fungi (ericoid mycorrhizal fungi) respond to elevated temperatures and what this means for the plants they associate with.

The majority of plant species worldwide depend on mutualistic associations with belowground mycorrhizal fungi. These symbioses enhance nutrient and water acquisition, alleviating environmental limitations, while also influencing plant productivity and driving community assembly. While most research has focused on the two dominant mycorrhizal mutualisms, especially those with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and ectomycorrhizal fungi (EcMF), a third major group, the ericoid mycorrhizal fungi (ErMF), remains persistently overlooked. Ericoid mycorrhizal fungi represent the dominant mutualistic mycorrhizal fungi in wetland and heathland systems – habitats that act as major carbon stores globally. Despite their key role in wetland and heathland systems, these fungi are severely understudied, with most work occurring in the 1980s and 1990s. Critically, many ecosystems where plant-ErMF associations occur are undergoing rapid degradation due to climate change and anthropogenic land-use pressures, particularly in Europe. 

Here we aim to study ericoid fungal – plant relationships in varying temperatures to better understand which pairings will thrive under future climate scenarios. Species included in the experiment are expected to span both naturally occurring species and important ornamental and crop species.

With this project, you will learn traditional culturing, mounting, and identification techniques of these key fungi, and participate in inoculation of a large breadth of wetland and heathland plant species. Depending on interest and time, isolation of field collected root fungi and resynthesis experiments in the greenhouse may be possible.