This will be a hybrid In-person/Zoom meeting.  Attend in person on the U of M St. Paul campus or watch live with Zoom.

Carbon cycling in forest soils: where do fungi fit in? with Dr. Peter Kennedy

Dead fungal cells, commonly referred to as necromass, are increasingly recognized as an important source of both persistent carbon as well as nutrient availability in soils. This talk examines how a range of ecological factors influence the rates at which dead fungal cells decompose. Using lab-based manipulations of fungal traits along with field-based experiments of fungal necromass, we show that rates of necromass decomposition are strongly influenced by both biochemical and morphological variation.

Peter Kennedy is an ecologically-focused mycologist who is broadly interested in plant-microbe interactions. He received his undergraduate degree from The Evergreen State College and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He joined the faculty in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology at the University of Minnesota in 2013.  For more on Dr. Kennedy’s work, go here.

Club business/announcements: Reminder to submit nominations for 2023 open Board positions and Golden Chanterelle award.

For our member’s convenience, all MMS meetings will use the same Zoom link.  This link is provided on meeting announcements and reminders.

This meeting is free and open to the public.  If you are not a member, contact webmaster@minnesotamycologicalsociety.org to get details on how to join this virtual meeting.  Please do so no later than an hour before the meeting.

If you haven’t used Zoom before and don’t want to miss anything, you may want to click on the meeting link to download Zoom and familiarize yourself with it at least 15 minutes prior to the meeting.

How to join a Zoom meeting – You do not need a Zoom account, but you will need the Zoom app installed on your desktop or mobile device. You can either download the Zoom app in advance here. Or, you will be automatically prompted to download and install the Zoom app when you click on a meeting link for the first time. You can also join a test meeting at any time at https://zoom.us/test.  Watch a video on how to join a Zoom meeting here.