Eighth Meeting
Date: Tuesday, 11 May 02021
Time: 19:00 (UTC+2)
Place: Jitsi Meeting Room (video call)
Duration: 60 minutes
Language: English
My sincere apologies for posting this so late. I’ve been somewhat preoccupied with a new work project.
Time for another ecology paper. I’m really excited about this one! If you’ve been wanting to join these meetings but haven’t quite worked up the courage - this could be a great round to jump in! The paper is short and relatively accessible and I think the conversation is going to be super interesting. We are friendly humyns and do our very best to provide a comfortable and welcoming environment.
Jusino MA, Lindner DL, Banik MT, et al. (2016). Experimental evidence of a symbiosis between red-cockaded woodpeckers and fungi. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 283(1827).
Link to the open-access paper (PDF)
Abstract:
Primary cavity excavators, such as woodpeckers, are ecosystem engineers in many systems. Associations between cavity excavators and fungi have long been hypothesized to facilitate cavity excavation, but these relationships have not been experimentally verified. Fungi may help excavators by softening wood, while excavators may facilitate fungal dispersal. Here we demonstrate that excavators facilitate fungal dispersal and thus we report the first experimental evidence of a symbiosis between fungi and a cavity excavator, the red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW,Picoides borealis). Swab samples of birds showed that RCWs carry fungal communities similar to those found in their completed excavations. A 26-month field experiment using human-made aseptically drilled excavations in live trees, half of which were inaccessible to RCWs, demonstrated that RCWs directly alter fungal colonization and community composition. Experimental excavations that were accessible to RCWs contained fungal communities similar to natural RCW excavations, whereas inaccessible experimental excavations contained significantly different fungal communities. Our work demonstrates a complex symbiosis between cavity excavators and communities of fungi, with implications for forest ecology, wildlife management, and conservation.
I’m going to test out my live recording setup now to be sure we can record our meeting this time around
Hope to see some of you there!