| The ecology of fungal body size
Fungal body sizes range from microns to hectares. My dissertation work focuses on differences in communities and metacommunities of large and small fungi. I'm especially interested in dispersal limitation and competition, and I study fungi in a variety of habitats, including yeasts and other fungi in pitcher plants, as well as wood-decomposing fungi in forests.
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Ganoderma tsugae is a wood-decomposing fungus that can be as large as the tree it lives on. |
| Yeasts in the Sarracenia purpurea system
S. purpurea is a carnivorous pitcher plant whose pitchers contain a variety of organisms, including several species of yeasts. I am investigating competition and community assembly in yeasts isolated from these plants, as well as the fungal diversity inhabiting pitcher plant leaves.
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Sarracenia purpurea shown here growing
in a greenhouse at Harvard Forest
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Yeasts isolated from the liquid inside S. puruprea leaves
growing as colonies on a Petri dish. |
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Publications
Bruns TD, KG Peay, PJ Boynton, LC Grubisha, NA Hynson, NH Nguyen, NP Rosenstock (2009) Inoculum potential of Rhizopogon spores increases with time over the first 4 yr of a 99-yr spore burial experiment. New Phytologist 181:463-470.
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