Fungi fascination leads to book

A most interesting and charismatic presenter, Dr Pouliot’s enthusiasm will immediately have you transfixed into her fascinating world of fungi.

In fact Dr Pouliot moves between both northern and southern hemispheres each year to experience two autumns, providing her an opportunity to further explore her passion globally.

Dr Pouliot explains fungi matter in food-growing environments and can be viewed as friends rather than foe because they increase the health and resilience of agroecosystems.

“Fungi provide the architecture in soils that hold soil particles apart, allowing them to be aerated and thus making them inhabitable to other organisms such as invertebrates (also known as ecosystem ‘engineers’) as well as allowing water to gently percolate through to deeper horizons,” Dr Pouliot said.

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“Fungi are the great recyclers of organic matter in terrestrial ecosystems, breaking down recalcitrant compounds such as lignin and cellulose and returning nutrients to the soil.

“They also form mutually beneficial relationships with the great majority of plants including our food plants.

“For all these reasons food growers might want to consider fungi as friends rather than foe.

“Fungi usually only become problematic when we inadvertently create situations that compromise the overall fungal diversity (i.e by knocking out the ones that can't tolerate the changed conditions).

“For example, through soil disturbance, over-irrigation, excess fertilisers and soil compaction and favour a particular species that can then dominate.”

Fungi are often scapegoated as the cause of problems in food growing environments whereas in fact they are a symptom of much greater systemic problems (usually mismanagement of a garden or agricultural environment).

Whereas in fact fungi should be regarded as 'friends' because they increase biological activity in soils, improve the nutrient density of the food plants they're associated with, increasing their health and resilience, as well as put structure in soils, and create soils through the recycling process.

When mushrooms appear in food growing environments, these are just the reproductive structures.

The actual growing and feeding part of the fungus exists as a tapestry of long cells called hyphae that collectively form the fungus mycelium.

These tiny Fairy Inkcaps (Coprinellus disseminatus) and Redlead Roundheads (Lerationmyces ceres) assist in the recycling process, decomposing organic matter and making nutrients available to plants.

“Fungi can be encouraged back into agroecosystems by creating environments that enable them to flourish,” Dr Pouliot said.

“We can do this by providing a diversity of habitats and substrates for fungi. For example, retaining organic matter on the ground that contains a range of woody material of different species, sizes and ages provides different substrates and microclimates to encourage the greatest diversity of fungi.

“Importantly, try to minimise or eliminate stresses that discourage fungi, especially physical disturbance such as raking up leaf litter, ploughing, tilling, digging (that physically breaks the mycelium); over-irrigation (that can drown the mycelium); fertiliser application (anything in excess is toxic); and compaction from heavy machinery (that can crush the mycelium).”

Dr Pouliot’s foray into fungi, complete with stunning macrophotography is captured in her new book, The Allure of Fungi, (CSIRO Publishing $49.99) to be released in September 2018.

The book reflects on the ecology and conservation of fungi and documents a forgotten corner of the natural world that is both beguiling and fundamental to life.

A combination of text and visual essays reflects on how aesthetic, sensate experience deepened by scientific knowledge offers the best chance for understanding fungi, the forest and human interactions with them and, through multiple perspectives – those of mycologists and ecologists, foragers and forayers, naturalists and farmers, aesthetes and artists, philosophers and traditional owners, it explores how a history of entrenched fears and misconceptions about fungi has led to their near absence in Australian ecological consciousness and biodiversity conservation.

With nine chapters taking the reader from “meeting mushrooms” to looking at different fungi in different hemispheres, identifying, collecting and expanding knowledge and understanding of this fascinating subject this is a worthy addition to a bookshelf.