Speaker
Description
Fungi are the largest source of biomass within soils, yet fungi are frequently neglected within the environmental microbiology and environmental science research disciplines (Gadd et al., 2007). Fungi are known to play vital roles in soils: as symbionts with plants, as decomposers and in elemental cycling. Furthermore, basidiomycota fungi have been shown to successfully degrade organic contaminants in soils (Bezalel et al., 1996) and more recently have been proposed as a novel nature-based solution within the field of ground engineering (El Mountassir et al., 2018; Salifu et al., 2022).
One of the significant challenges in the deployment of fungi within civil and environmental engineering applications is the ability to understand, control and optimise the growth of fungal networks. To date, much of the work on fungal-soil interactions has been carried out in 2D systems where growth of the fungus/fungi is promoted to occur at the soil-air interface by compaction of soils. This study investigates the 3D fungal networks that are created within complex soil media (solid soil particles, carbon substrate, air and liquid phases) by also considering fungal growth with depth into soils.
A series of column experiments were conducted investigating the ability of various UK native basidiomycota species to grow with depth. Nutrients were emplaced in varying spatial arrangements within the soil. A methodology was developed in this study to characterise the fungal networks developed within the soil by: staining fungal hyphae, preparation of resin impregnated soil samples, optical microscopy and image analysis. Biochemical analysis was also carried out to determine hot water extractable carbohydrate as an indicator of microbial biomass with depth. The development of this methodology to characterise fungal networks allows us to more readily understand differences in growth behaviour between different fungal species and the differences in mycelia architecture that can exist with depth. This will be of critical importance for identifying fungal species that have the potential to be applied at larger-scales both for ground and environmental engineering applications.
References
Gadd, G., Watkinson, S., & Dyer, P. (Eds.). (2007). Fungi in the Environment (British Mycological Society Symposia). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511541797
Bezalel, L., Hadar, Y., Fu, P.P., Freeman, J.P., Cerniglia, C.E. 1996. Metabolism of Phenanthrene by the White Rot fungus Pleurotus ostreatus, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, p. 2547-2553.
El Mountassir, G., Minto, J. M., van Paassen, L.A., Salifu, E. and Lunn, R.J. (2018). Applications of microbial processes in geotechnical engineering (59pp.), Chapter 2, In Advances in Applied Microbiology (Editors Gadd, G. and Sariaslani, S.), Volume 104, 39-91 (53pp.) (Total book length 173pp.). https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aambs.2018.05.001.
Salifu, E., El Mountassir, G., Minto, J.M. and Tarantino, A. 2022. Hydraulic behaviour of fungal treated sand. Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment 30: 100258 (15 pp.) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gete.2021.100258.
| Participation | In-Person |
|---|---|
| Country | UK |
| MDPI Energies Student Poster Award | No, do not submit my presenation for the student posters award. |
| Acceptance of the Terms & Conditions | Click here to agree |
