Welcome to my home page

I see myself as a mycologist/ecologist with special emphasis on the interaction between bark beetles and their ability to act as vectors of basidiomycete fungi.

PhD project

I am currently working as a PhD-student with special emphasis on if the bark beetles facilitate the establishment of rot fungi through mechanically created high stumps of Norway spruce. In the main project I have been monitoring during 3 years (2007-2009 and 2008-2010) six different clear cut areas, where high stumps have been created, in south east of Sweden nearby Uppsala. Depending on the bark beetle species and the environmental condition when the high stumps were created the fungal flora differ and the bark beetles role as a vector cannot in this moment be neglected or rejected. 

Ongoing projects

Do bark beetles facilitate the establishment of rot fungi in mechanically created high stumps of Norway spruce?

Do the emerging holes of the bark beetle play a more important role as an entrance to the fungal wind spread spores than the fungal flora vectored by the bark beetle?

Publication list

Persson Y, Vasaitis R, Långström B. Ohrn P, Ihrmark K, Stenlid J. 2009. Fungi vectored by the bark beetle Ips typographus following hibernation under the bark of standing trees and in the forest litter. Microbial Ecology Oct; 58 (3): 651-9.

Persson Y, Ihrmark K, Stenlid J. 2010. Do bark beetles facilitate the establishment of rot fungi in Norway spruce? Submitted, Fungal Ecology