MYCOIND
Mycorrhizas and Europe’s oaks: a functional biodiversity knowledge gap
| Coordinatore | IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Organization address
address: SOUTH KENSINGTON CAMPUS EXHIBITION ROAD contact info |
| Nazionalità Coordinatore | United Kingdom [UK] |
| Totale costo | 173˙240 € |
| EC contributo | 173˙240 € |
| Programma | FP7-PEOPLE
Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) |
| Code Call | FP7-PEOPLE-2009-IEF |
| Funding Scheme | MC-IEF |
| Anno di inizio | 2010 |
| Periodo (anno-mese-giorno) | 2010-08-23 - 2012-08-22 |
Partecipanti
| # | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
IMPERIAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MEDICINE
Organization address
address: SOUTH KENSINGTON CAMPUS EXHIBITION ROAD contact info |
UK (LONDON) | coordinator | 173˙240.80 |
Mappa
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Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)
'Oak forests are an extensive forest type in temperate regions worldwide. Forest ecosystems are threatened due to a loss of biodiversity caused by human and environmental factors. It is thus essential to understand which processes and factors are involved in the maintenance of forest soil functional biodiversity to assure their long-term development and sustainability. In boreal and temperate forests nearly all tree roots form mycorrhizas, which play a crucial ecological role by determining nutrient acquisition and drought tolerance of trees. Despite their vital importance, there is a gap of knowledge about the functional significance of mycorrhizal diversity in forest ecosystems. In this project the aims are: 1) to assess the mycorrhizal diversity of European oak forests creating baseline data against future forest changes; 2) to test for relationships between mycorrhizal community composition and forest condition; and 3) to study changes in mycorrhizal biodiversity and biomass across environmental gradients. This will be carried out through field sampling across Europe at intensively monitored long-term oak forest plots from the ICP Forests European network. This project will for the first time combine molecular ecology methods for mycorrhizas and mycelia within this vast network. This will allow to generate essential DNA-based baseline mycorrhizal diversity and distribution data from European oak forests across environmental gradients and to test whether mycorrhizal shifts allow the detection and prediction of future changes in these forests. We expect to identify a set of dominant mycorrhizas that can act as belowground indicators (MYCOIND) of forest condition in oak forests of Europe. Access to Europe’s biomonitoring forest plots and the recent availability of high-throughput molecular ecology tools, lead to a unique opportunity to create a platform of knowledge at a European scale, to provide information for the management and sustainability of these forests.'
Introduzione (Teaser)
Thanks to an EU-wide study, the relationship between fungal biodiversity in forest soils and ecosystem health is now better understood.