The Macrofungi Collection Consortium

The Macrofungi Collection Consortium: Unlocking a Biodiversity Resource for Understanding Biotec Interactions, Nutrient Cycling and Human Affairs

Project Summary

The Macrofungi Collection Consortium: Unlocking a Biodiversity Resource for Understanding Biotic Interactions, Nutrient Cycling and Human Affairs

Mushrooms and related fungi (macrofungi) play a critical role in the lives of plants and animals, including humans, yet their diversity is underestimated. Understanding this diversity will be critical in analyzing impacts of habitat change, nutrient cycling in ecosystems, and distributions and diversity of host organisms. Scientists in the U.S. have been studying these fungi for the past 150 years, resulting in a legacy of approximately 1.4 million dried scientific specimens conserved in 35 institutions in 24 states. These institutions have now joined in an effort to digitize and share online all data associated with macrofungi specimens. The resulting resource will enable a national census of macrofungi, never before attempted, and will allow researchers to better understand the diversity of these organisms and the relationship between macrofungi and the organisms with which they form intimate relationships.

Organized into clubs across the country, citizen mycologists play an important role in documenting macrofungi diversity, and these enthusiastic individuals are the conduit between professional scientists and the general public for critical information about wild edible and poisonous fungi. Citizen mycologists will join the collections institutions in this project to help to create the on-line resource. The project will fund two workshops for high school teachers to promote classroom study of fungi. University students employed by the project will gain work experience in digitization and formal training about fungi. Students will share the knowledge they gain through oral and video presentations. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biodiversity Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).

Project Leadership

Project Lead PI (Lead Principal Investigator): Barbara Thiers, New York Botanical Garden

Co-PIs: Rytas Vilgalys, Meredith Blackwell, Peter White, Richard Baird

NSF Award Number

1207526

Project Collaborators

Brigham Young University
College of the Atlantic
Cornell University
Denver Botanic Garden
Duke University
Eastern Illinois University
Field Museum of Natural History
Harvard University
Louisiana State University & Agricultural and Mechanical College
Miami University
Middle Georgia College
Mississippi State University
New York Botanical Garden
New York State Museum
North Carolina State University
Oregon State University
Rutgers University
San Francisco State University
State University of New York at Cortland
State University of New York at Syracuse
University of Arizona
University of California at Berkeley
University of Central Oklahoma
University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Maryland
University of Michigan
University of Minnesota
University of North Carolina
University of South Alabama
University of Tennessee
University of Washington
University of Wyoming
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Washington State University