Franziska Zahn: Beyond Photosynthesis: Do small trees in the understory of tropical forest gain additional carbon from fungi? 

Franziska Zahn, postdoc at University of Bayreuth (Germany), presents her work “Stable isotope analysis indicates partial mycoheterotrophy in arbuscular mycorrhizal woody seedlings in tropical forests”. She discusses the collaborative network established between plants and fungi, how little we know about C-transfer in plants, and advises everyone to focus on their research despite the fascinating questions ecology offers to us.  Thinking of plants, we often picture … Continue reading Franziska Zahn: Beyond Photosynthesis: Do small trees in the understory of tropical forest gain additional carbon from fungi? 

Pedro Gundel: plant-fungi symbiosis and the impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency

In our new post Pedro Gundel, researcher at University of Talca (Chile) presents his work ‘Temporal host–symbiont dynamics in community contexts: Impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency on symbiosis prevalence’. He shows how symbiotic species transmit between generations, discusses the complexity of ecological processes and shares the long path that paved the way to this work.  About the paper A major topic in … Continue reading Pedro Gundel: plant-fungi symbiosis and the impact of host fitness and vertical transmission efficiency

Beatrice Bock: Becoming a scientist wasn’t a mistake, just a happy little accident

It’s been just over a month since the 12th International Conference on Mycorrhiza. In these blog posts, we hear from some of the winners of Functional Ecology’s poster and talk prizes! Here, Beatrice Bock – who won our second place prize for her poster ‘Common mycorrhizal networks: exploring the “dark web“‘ – discusses her journey from business to ecology. She makes the case for pursuing … Continue reading Beatrice Bock: Becoming a scientist wasn’t a mistake, just a happy little accident