About This Project

Tropical montane cloud forests are bio-diverse ecosystems¸ that are being lost to cattle farming, logging, and mining,and threatened by climate change. Fungi of these systems are largely unexplored with modern techniques. To explore the fungi of the canopy we'll climb trees of an Ecuadorian cloud-forest, sampling for both macrofungi and microfungi. We will examine the little-known diversity of macro-fungi, and map changes in the fungal microbiome of these trees with height.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

In my lab, we study the microbiome of trees. Trees are host to millions of microorganisms inside and outside their roots, wood and leaves, just like humans are hosts to millions of bacteria inside and on our bodies! Many of these microorganisms are fungi, and they are important to tree health (and here) just like we rely on healthy bacteria in our gut to keep out disease. I want to answer the question, how do trees' microbiomes change with height in the canopy? Along the way I want to make collections of the macrofungi that live in the Ecuadorian cloud forest canopy, a poorly explored mycological habitat.

What is the significance of this project?

Questions of diversity and ecology of plant microbiomes have large implications for forest management and agriculture. At a time of unprecedented pathogen pressure on our food plants, and in a changing climate, it is important to learn about our microbial friends that can help their hosts in stressful times, and their ecological patterns. Additionally, mapping the changes in microbiome with host exposure will be important in these times of rapid deforestation, as the canopy opening caused by deforestation may be causing big changes in forest fungi (and here). We hypothesize that even very small-scale changes in the micro-climate of the canopy will result in changes in the stresses on plant host and microbes, resulting in highly local changes in fungal microbiomes with height and exposure.

What are the goals of the project?

We will rig and climb eight trees each of two common species of host tree (Protium sp. and Cecropia sp.) in the sampling site at Reserva Los Cedros, in northern Ecuador. We'll take leaf and wood tissue at 3- or 5-meter regular intervals into the canopy. Endophyte and epiphyte fungi will be separated by thorough washing of leaves, followed by centrifugation of this wash water to pelletize the epiphyte biomass, and sterilization of outside leaves and wood. DNA will be extracted from these pellets, leaves, and wood, and a barcode gene (ITS) will be amplified using fungal specific primers for illumina miseq platform sequencing. These DNA libraries will then be characterized and analyzed to describe microfungal communities at each site and look for ecological patterns with changing height.