Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher: What are fungi doing in our bushlands?

This event is part of the Haddon Community Learning Centre's National Science Week activities:

‘Fungal Futures’ - partnering with ‘fungi’ for sustainable communities and healthy landscapes.

ONLINE TALK - What are fungi doing in our bushland

Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher

Fungi are important to keeping bushlands healthy. Yet many people rarely think about what fungi are doing. There are many different groups of fungi and and fungoid organisms like slime moulds and water moulds have different roles that interact with animals, plants and microbes. Whether fungi are seen as beneficial or detrimental often depends on the circumstances and point of view. This talk will lead you though the main roles of fungi in the landscape including roles as recyclers, benifical partners of plants like mycorrhiza, fungi as food. Problem fungi and why good hygine and biosecurity practices should be important for bushland management. There will be the basics of fungi conservation and an update of Tea-tree Fingers, Australia’s most threatened fungus.

Keynote Speaker: Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher is an ecologist who has a special interest in conservation of biodiversity, particularly the macrofungi and mosses. She has lived in Australia, New Zealand and Africa and is interested in these and similar landscapes around the world. She most enjoys spending time in bushland and working with community groups to help them understand the importance of fungi in maintaining ecosystem health. www.funfungiecology.com

After Sapphire's talk there will be an introduciton to the Wild Fungi DNA project which is using citizen science and environmental DNA techniques to monitor fungi in the environment.

Partner organisations include:

• Haddon Community Learning Centre
• Field Naturalists Club Ballarat
• MYCOmmunity Applied Mycology
• Fungi For Land