Biosfären, MVM building at Campus Ultuna, Uppsala
Welcome to Erica Packard's halftime seminar. In this presentation, Erica Packard will elaborate on the findings from her first project on exploring ectomycorrhizal decomposers and their niche in boreal forests, as well as outline the progress and plan of her remaining projects. Welcome to the seminar!
Title: The ecology and function of ectomycorrhizal decomposers
Opponent: Mohammad Bahram, Senior lecturer at the Department of Ecology, SLU
Pedagogic reviewer: Miyanda Chilipamushi
Chairperson: Tamlyn Gangiah
Ectomycorrhizal fungi are crucial to the carbon and nutrient dynamics of boreal forest soils. They have several direct and indirect functional roles that are important for nitrogen cycling and the balance between soil organic matter accumulation and decomposition. There is evidence that at least some ectomycorrhizal species – here called ectomycorrhizal decomposers – have potent oxidative enzymes called manganese peroxidases. Erica Packard's research focuses on this unique combination of traits, mycorrhizal lifestyle and potent decomposer capacity. Most ectomycorrhizal fungi can not be studied in the laboratory in a relevant manner, so Erica Packard is using a variety of different approaches such as correlation based analyses of field-measured properties, biotechnology, and metatranscriptomics.
More about Erica Packard and her research.
Erica Packard
PhD Student in Soil Biology
Department of Soil and Environment
erica.packard@slu.se