Professor Lynne Boddy

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Heart rot of standing trees, and bridging the habitat gap

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Rich Wright (Plant Life Wales), Ted Green (Windsor), Vikki Bengtsson (Pro Natura, Sweden), Carrie Brady and Robin Thorn (University of the West of England)

In living trees, most decay occurs in the central heart of the tree (termed heart-rot), where water content is lower and aeration better than in functional sapwood. Despite heart-rot study beginning almost 200 years ago, there has been limited research in the last 50 years, probably because forestry practices largely involve cultivation of younger trees. We do not know how the fungi become established, how their communities change over time, the location, rates and patterns of decomposition in relation to wood anatomy. Nor do we know how this impacts the organisms dependent on this habitat. Our initial studies on beech revealed the 3-dimensional structure of decay fungi in wood, and showed that records of fruit bodies give a poor indication of the fungi responsible for decay, and of their internal distribution. Our explorations into oak, on the other hand, revealed that the two main fungi seen fruiting on trunks – beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) and chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) – are the main causes of heart-rot and hollowing, although there is also a large diversity of ascomycetes with, as yet, unknown roles. Our ongoing research on standing felled/fallen ash trunks is providing baseline information on its fungal diversity, essential information in the aftermath of ash dieback. We are finding very different fungal communities from those in other tree species, and that there do not appear to be other native or naturalised trees that provide habitat for many of the ash fungi. Of course, fungi do not operate in isolation, bacteria often being present in minute amounts and sometimes dominating, causing conditions called wet-wood, which we are just begining to study.

Hollowing trunks of veteran trees provide important habitat for fungi, invertebrates and vertebrates, including threatened species. Veteran trees are in decline globally, including the UK, and although there are massive planting programmes it can take over a hundred years for hollows to begin to develop, depending on tree species. This will leave a large gap between cohorts of trees, and the habitat formed by fungi in their trunks that is crucial to many organisms. We have been testing ways of replicating this dead wood habitat in younger trees. We have been successful in inoculating appropriate heart-rot fungi into beech trees to start the heart-rot process, and are now inoculating oak trees. We have monitored trees that have been accidentally or intentionally damaged by others in the hope of initiating heart-rot and shown that establishment of heart-rot fungi by this process is usually very slow. We aim to roll out the inoculation process more widely.

Endangered wood decay basidiomycete fungi

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Rich Wright (Plant Life Wales), Ted Green (Windsor)

Fungi in the genus Hericium (hedgehog fungi) are decomposers of wood. H. erinaceum is a UK BAP priority species, H. coralloides appears even rarer, and H. cirrhatum is also uncommon. Concentrating on these species, we have obtained probably the most in-depth autecological knowledge of any putatively rare fungal species. Similarly, with the rare oak polypore Buglossoporus quercinus, we have found that populations appear to be inbred, sexual spores rarely germinate, but thick-walled asexual spores allow survival under adverse microclimate. We are trying to bolster populations by conservation inoculation of rare fungi into standing living trees, and have been working on guidelines for what, how, where and when to inoculate to avoid unintended environmental consequences.

Temperate rainforest

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External Collaborators: Rich Wright (Plant Life)

Just over 1% of Britain’s land surface is currently occupied by temperate Atlantic rainforest, representing about 40% of Europe’s remaining temperate rainforests. It is internationally rare and threatened habitat that supports diverse communities of epiphytes. There is currently limited knowledge of the wood decay fungal communities so we are aiming to redress the balance in projects that are just starting.

Fungal-invertebrate interactions

BIOSI collaborator: T. Hefin Jones, Sarah Christofides
External Collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Gareth Griffith (Aberystwyth University)

Fungi and invertebrates interact intimately in decomposing wood, with both positive and negative effects on each other. Many invertebrates are attracted to fungal mycelia and fruit bodies, upon which they may graze and in which they may breed. We are investigating the invertebrate communities in the hollows at the bases of living ash, beech and oak tree trunks using traditional Tullgren extraction and morphological identification along with molecular approaches. In addition to general surveys and investigating correlation with fungi present, we have particularly focussed on the rare violet click beetle (Gambrinus (=Limoniscus) violaceus).

Rather than using bins of organic matter as a way of bridging the rotten wood habitat gap for invertebrates, we are trialling wooden boxes of sawdust colonised by appropriate heart-rot fungi. Though in early stages, sampling indicates that different invertebrates are found in boxes with different species of fungi.

Foraging patterns, architecture and memory of mycelia systems in soil

BIOSI collaborators: Sarah Christofides, Fred Windsor, Veronica Grieneisen

External collaborators: Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Mark D. Fricker (University of Oxford), Torda Varga (Kew)

Wood-decaying basidiomycete fungi are the major agents of decomposition in forests and hence crucial to nutrient cycling. On the forest floor, decay fungi that produce ‘root-like’ linear organs - termed cords, exhibit remarkable patterns of biomass and nutrient reallocation on locating new resources. They also deploy biomass differently and operate different search patterns depending on species, microclimatic regime, nutrient status of the system and surrounding soil. The complex mycelial networks that form in soil are constantly being remodelled in response to nutrient discovery and demand, changes in microclimate and destructive disturbance, e.g. by invertebrate grazers. We have also shown that mycelia have some sort of ‘directional’ memory.

We are currently investigating, mathematically, the architecture of networks, routes between different regions, resilience to damage, etc. using graph/network theory, and modelling foraging patterns. Only a handful of cord-forming fungi have been studied so far, but many species are able to produce cords so we are starting to investigate evolutionary relationships between these fungi.

Global change effects on fungi

Fungi provide vital ecosystem services through decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil aggregation, and are an important component of ecosystem responses to global change. We have been involved in extensive analyses of data sets from the UK and continental Europe, which have shown that fungal fruiting phenology is dramatically changing as are hosts and species distributions, due to climate and other global changes, though this varies between species and ecosystems. We have also studied climate change effects on fungus-invertebrate interactions and fungal-fungal interactions, and now embed global change aspects in all of our ongoing projects.

Interactions between saprotrophic fungi

BIOSI collaborators: Hilary J. Rogers, Carsten Müller, Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Daniel P. Eastwood (Swansea University)

Basidiomycete fungi are the major agents of decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Different species and individuals encounter each other both within colonized organic resources and in soil/leaf litter during outgrowth in search of new resources. They defend and obtain new territory by combative, antagonistic interactions. These interactions are, thus, crucial to fungal community development and functioning in dead organic matter. The overall outcomes are deadlock, where neither species gains headway, or replacement where one species wrests territory from the other, but sometimes partial replacement or reciprocal replacement. Outcomes vary depending on species, site of interaction (i.e. in soil or wood etc.), microclimate and relative size of mycelia and resources occupied etc. Outcome of interactions can be affected by microclimate and resource status amongst others. We have shown that soil invertebrate grazing alters mycelial interactions, dramatically. With the complexity of multiple species and environmental conditions, many different antagonistic mechanisms operate. Responses to antagonists include rapid cell division and death, production of pigments, volatile (VOCs) and diffusible organic compounds, other antimicrobial agents, changes in enzyme production and gene expression. We are trying to understand both how interspecific fungal interactions determine fungal community structure and development, and the underlying mechanisms of antagonism. Ultimately, we want to know how wood decay communities function in natural ecosystems. We are investigating the physiological and gene expression changes during interactions between species of decay fungi in wood representing the succession from primary coloniser to secondary and tertiary decomposers, under differing environmental conditions, using new post-genomic tools to allow us to get a complete picture of the genes that are switched on and off during interactions.

Cardiff Masters and PhD research students: Ed Woolley; Phos Hayes; Rhys Lloyd; Diasy Yiangou

Heart rot of standing trees, and bridging the habitat gap

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Rich Wright (Plant Life Wales), Ted Green (Windsor), Vikki Bengtsson (Pro Natura, Sweden), Carrie Brady and Robin Thorn (University of the West of England)

In living trees, most decay occurs in the central heart of the tree (termed heart-rot), where water content is lower and aeration better than in functional sapwood. Despite heart-rot study beginning almost 200 years ago, there has been limited research in the last 50 years, probably because forestry practices largely involve cultivation of younger trees. We do not know how the fungi become established, how their communities change over time, the location, rates and patterns of decomposition in relation to wood anatomy. Nor do we know how this impacts the organisms dependent on this habitat. Our initial studies on beech revealed the 3-dimensional structure of decay fungi in wood, and showed that records of fruit bodies give a poor indication of the fungi responsible for decay, and of their internal distribution. Our explorations into oak, on the other hand, revealed that the two main fungi seen fruiting on trunks – beefsteak fungus (Fistulina hepatica) and chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) – are the main causes of heart-rot and hollowing, although there is also a large diversity of ascomycetes with, as yet, unknown roles. Our ongoing research on standing felled/fallen ash trunks is providing baseline information on its fungal diversity, essential information in the aftermath of ash dieback. We are finding very different fungal communities from those in other tree species, and that there do not appear to be other native or naturalised trees that provide habitat for many of the ash fungi. Of course, fungi do not operate in isolation, bacteria often being present in minute amounts and sometimes dominating, causing conditions called wet-wood, which we are just begining to study.

Hollowing trunks of veteran trees provide important habitat for fungi, invertebrates and vertebrates, including threatened species. Veteran trees are in decline globally, including the UK, and although there are massive planting programmes it can take over a hundred years for hollows to begin to develop, depending on tree species. This will leave a large gap between cohorts of trees, and the habitat formed by fungi in their trunks that is crucial to many organisms. We have been testing ways of replicating this dead wood habitat in younger trees. We have been successful in inoculating appropriate heart-rot fungi into beech trees to start the heart-rot process, and are now inoculating oak trees. We have monitored trees that have been accidentally or intentionally damaged by others in the hope of initiating heart-rot and shown that establishment of heart-rot fungi by this process is usually very slow. We aim to roll out the inoculation process more widely.

Endangered wood decay basidiomycete fungi

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Rich Wright (Plant Life Wales), Ted Green (Windsor)

Fungi in the genus Hericium (hedgehog fungi) are decomposers of wood. H. erinaceum is a UK BAP priority species, H. coralloides appears even rarer, and H. cirrhatum is also uncommon. Concentrating on these species, we have obtained probably the most in-depth autecological knowledge of any putatively rare fungal species. Similarly, with the rare oak polypore Buglossoporus quercinus, we have found that populations appear to be inbred, sexual spores rarely germinate, but thick-walled asexual spores allow survival under adverse microclimate. We are trying to bolster populations by conservation inoculation of rare fungi into standing living trees, and have been working on guidelines for what, how, where and when to inoculate to avoid unintended environmental consequences.

Temperate rainforest

BIOSI collaborator: Sarah Christofides
External Collaborators: Rich Wright (Plant Life)

Just over 1% of Britain’s land surface is currently occupied by temperate Atlantic rainforest, representing about 40% of Europe’s remaining temperate rainforests. It is internationally rare and threatened habitat that supports diverse communities of epiphytes. There is currently limited knowledge of the wood decay fungal communities so we are aiming to redress the balance in projects that are just starting.

Fungal-invertebrate interactions

BIOSI collaborator: T. Hefin Jones, Sarah Christofides
External Collaborators: Matt Wainhouse (Natural England), Gareth Griffith (Aberystwyth University)

Fungi and invertebrates interact intimately in decomposing wood, with both positive and negative effects on each other. Many invertebrates are attracted to fungal mycelia and fruit bodies, upon which they may graze and in which they may breed. We are investigating the invertebrate communities in the hollows at the bases of living ash, beech and oak tree trunks using traditional Tullgren extraction and morphological identification along with molecular approaches. In addition to general surveys and investigating correlation with fungi present, we have particularly focussed on the rare violet click beetle (Gambrinus (=Limoniscus) violaceus).

Rather than using bins of organic matter as a way of bridging the rotten wood habitat gap for invertebrates, we are trialling wooden boxes of sawdust colonised by appropriate heart-rot fungi. Though in early stages, sampling indicates that different invertebrates are found in boxes with different species of fungi.

Foraging patterns, architecture and memory of mycelia systems in soil

BIOSI collaborators: Sarah Christofides, Fred Windsor, Veronica Grieneisen

External collaborators: Carlos Aguilar-Trigueros (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Mark D. Fricker (University of Oxford), Torda Varga (Kew)

Wood-decaying basidiomycete fungi are the major agents of decomposition in forests and hence crucial to nutrient cycling. On the forest floor, decay fungi that produce ‘root-like’ linear organs - termed cords, exhibit remarkable patterns of biomass and nutrient reallocation on locating new resources. They also deploy biomass differently and operate different search patterns depending on species, microclimatic regime, nutrient status of the system and surrounding soil. The complex mycelial networks that form in soil are constantly being remodelled in response to nutrient discovery and demand, changes in microclimate and destructive disturbance, e.g. by invertebrate grazers. We have also shown that mycelia have some sort of ‘directional’ memory.

We are currently investigating, mathematically, the architecture of networks, routes between different regions, resilience to damage, etc. using graph/network theory, and modelling foraging patterns. Only a handful of cord-forming fungi have been studied so far, but many species are able to produce cords so we are starting to investigate evolutionary relationships between these fungi.

Global change effects on fungi

Fungi provide vital ecosystem services through decomposition, nutrient cycling and soil aggregation, and are an important component of ecosystem responses to global change. We have been involved in extensive analyses of data sets from the UK and continental Europe, which have shown that fungal fruiting phenology is dramatically changing as are hosts and species distributions, due to climate and other global changes, though this varies between species and ecosystems. We have also studied climate change effects on fungus-invertebrate interactions and fungal-fungal interactions, and now embed global change aspects in all of our ongoing projects.

Interactions between saprotrophic fungi

BIOSI collaborators: Hilary J. Rogers, Carsten Müller, Sarah Christofides
External collaborators: Daniel P. Eastwood (Swansea University)

Basidiomycete fungi are the major agents of decomposition and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems. Different species and individuals encounter each other both within colonized organic resources and in soil/leaf litter during outgrowth in search of new resources. They defend and obtain new territory by combative, antagonistic interactions. These interactions are, thus, crucial to fungal community development and functioning in dead organic matter. The overall outcomes are deadlock, where neither species gains headway, or replacement where one species wrests territory from the other, but sometimes partial replacement or reciprocal replacement. Outcomes vary depending on species, site of interaction (i.e. in soil or wood etc.), microclimate and relative size of mycelia and resources occupied etc. Outcome of interactions can be affected by microclimate and resource status amongst others. We have shown that soil invertebrate grazing alters mycelial interactions, dramatically. With the complexity of multiple species and environmental conditions, many different antagonistic mechanisms operate. Responses to antagonists include rapid cell division and death, production of pigments, volatile (VOCs) and diffusible organic compounds, other antimicrobial agents, changes in enzyme production and gene expression. We are trying to understand both how interspecific fungal interactions determine fungal community structure and development, and the underlying mechanisms of antagonism. Ultimately, we want to know how wood decay communities function in natural ecosystems. We are investigating the physiological and gene expression changes during interactions between species of decay fungi in wood representing the succession from primary coloniser to secondary and tertiary decomposers, under differing environmental conditions, using new post-genomic tools to allow us to get a complete picture of the genes that are switched on and off during interactions.

Cardiff Masters and PhD research students: Ed Woolley; Phos Hayes; Rhys Lloyd; Daisy Yiangou

Biography

I am Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University UK, where I have worked since 1983. Prior to this I was a post doc at Bath University, I did my PhD at Queen Mary College, London University, and was an undergraduate at the University of Exeter. I have taught and researched into the ecology of fungi associated with trees and wood decomposition for over 40 years. I am currently studying: the fascinating communities of fungi and other organisms that rot the centres of old trees; the ash dieback fungus that is rampaging across the UK from Europe; the ways in which fungi fight each other and form communities; how fungi search the forest floor for food resources and respond to their finds; interactions between fungi and invertebrates; and how climate change is affecting fungi. I have co-authored the books “Fungal Decomposition of Wood” and “The Fungi”, and most recently (early 2021) I have written “Fungi and Trees: their Complex Relationships”. I have edited five books, written about 300 scientific papers, and am chief editor of the journal Fungal Ecology.

I am an ardent communicator of fungal science not only to students but also to a wider audience, by giving talks, short courses, participating in biology/nature events and through the media. Events have included UK Fungus Day (which we are hoping to expand to International Fungus Day), Soap Box science, and the RHS Chelsea Flower show, at which, I was a prime mover with the British Mycological Society Gold Medal winning exhibit "Out of sight out of mind" in 2009. As well as being a hit with the judges, the display received wide acclaim from the public, including the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, and had a few minutes on prime-time BBC TV. This success was followed by a large exhibition on "Amazing Fungi" which ran for 4 months at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in 2010, and then for several years at the National Botanic Garden of Wales, where it was viewed by several hundred thousand visitors. Coinciding with the start of this exhibition, we published for a general audience "From Another Kingdom", which is RBGEs best-selling book.

I have spoken about fungi in numerous Radio and TV programmes and film documentaries, including: Radio 4 Farming Today, Saving Species, Living World, Forum, Radio 4 ‘Life Scientific, ‘In our time with Melvyn Bragg’, ‘The curious cases of Rutherford and Fry’, BBC World Service programmes, Radio Wales, BBC TV ' Afterlife', 'Great British Food Revival', 'The One Show' and Chanel 4's 'Sunday Brunch', and BBC1 ‘Trees’ with Judi Dench. I also participated in the award winning French produced film "Will fungi help save the world?" first shown on the European cultural television channel 'Arte' in Autumn 2013, and the 2018 award winning documentary “The Kingdom”. I am an active member of the British Mycological Society, of which I was president in 2009/10; I have organized, on their behalf, many conferences/events not only for academics but also for the wider public.

Honours and awards

My contributions have been recognized by the award of an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2019 for Services to Mycology and Science Outreach.

I received the British Mycological Society (BMS) Berkeley Award in 1989, the Microbiology Society Fleming Award in 1991, the European Mycological Association outstanding achievement award in 2015, The British Ecological Society Marsh Award in 2016, The Frances Hoggan Medal of the Learned Society of Wales in 2018, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Abertay in 2018.

I am a fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2011) and of the Royal Society of Biology (2013).

In 2021, I was awarded the Arboricultural Association Award for significant and positive contribution to the arboricultural profession.

Supervisions

Current supervision

Rhys Lloyd

Edward Woolley

Phos Hayes