By Sophie Green (Project Coordinator, Fungi for Function)
We’ve now successfully reached the end of our first Fungi for Function pilot season, our citizen science grant project in South Australia!
Our key achievements to date:
We certainly had some challenging conditions for this first pilot year, with rainfall at some sites of only about half the average, and particularly low in May and June which is usually peak fungi fruiting time. Regardless, we were able to trial our survey methodology with an amazing team of citizen scientists, found 11 of our 26 target species within our survey areas across the 3 trial sites, and noticed some patterns emerging in the data in relation to our research question about whether target species across the four fungi functional groups (plant partners, recyclers, plant parasites and lichens) can be used as indicators of bushland condition.
- Crafers West – 160 records made of 21 species
- Lobethal – 105 records made of 26 species
- Deep Creek – 176 records made of 20 species
Most of our target species have not been showing themselves in this post-fire setting, however we again came across the wood recycling Golden Splash Tooth (Phlebia subceracea), and this time came across a range of small lichens including our target Cartilage Lichen (Ramalina celastri) and others which could not be identified to species level.
We also documented several interesting non-targets across the functional groups to the Lobethal iNaturalist project, including:
- Coltricia sp polypore – a plant partner
- Resupinatus sp – a recycler
- Neobarya agaricicola – a fungus parasite (look for the tiny yellow flasks on one of these old mushrooms!)
- Tiny yellow Ascomycete
We were lucky to be joined by interstate mycologist Dr Sapphire McMullan-Fisher who was able to give the group some training on a species that was very prevalent at the site, a distinctive yellow rhizomorph fungus called Rhizochaete filamentosa, recycling many fallen branches and burnt wood across both our survey areas, and leading us to begin recording it as a new target species.
Thanks to Trees for Life for teaming up at this site, it was excellent to have almost the same group attend both Lobethal surveys and able to really get to know the fungi here and see the differences across the fungi season!
Second survey – Deep Creek
On 17th August we hosted a fungi event with half the group doing timed surveys in our two transects and the other half learning about fungi from experts, on beautiful Ramindjeri country at the Deep Creek National Park.
It was a real privilege to be Welcomed to Country by Ramindjeri elder Mark Koolmatrie, and to hear his unique cultural insights throughout the day and share and learn about fungi together. We were also joined by an all-star cast of mycological experts including Pam and David Catcheside, Sherie Bruce, Michael and Aileen Priest, and Sapphire McMullan-Fisher, and appreciated people’s efforts to come from interstate for a fantastic day together celebrating the end of the fungi season!
The target plant partner/mycorrhizal species we found last time were no longer present at the second survey (the Green Skinhead and Yellow Funnel Rollrim) but we were delighted to instead find the beautiful plant partner White-stemmed Brittlegill (Russula persanguinea) in our survey areas.
Other target species found in our survey transects were the wood recycling Golden Splash Tooth (Phlebia subceracea), the Common Coral Lichen (Cladia aggregata), and several different Usneas including our target Tangled Beard Lichen (Usnea inermis). We also found the aforementioned Rhizochaete filamentosa at this site, clearly a key recycler throughout the Mt Lofty Ranges.
We were also delighted to find many other fun and colourful fungi in the area, also recorded to our Deep Creek iNaturalist project:
- Echidna fungus (Hydnum crocidens) – a plant partner
- Pale-Gilled Barefoot Lepidella (Amanita ochrophylloides) – a plant partner
- Marasmius growing on leaf – a recycler
- Broadleaf Bleeding-crust (Stereum rugosum) – a recycler
- Green Elfcup (Chlorociboria) – a recycler
- Picipes melanopus – a recycler
- Orange Fan (Anthracophyllum archeri) – a recycler
A big thanks to everyone who attended and our supportive site partners, the rangers and staff from the National Parks and Wildlife Service.
Second survey – Crafers West
With an earlier survey postponed due to stormy weather, our final survey at the Willawilla site on Kaurna and Peramangk country was held on 24th August.
Of our target species, we found the parasitic Dark Hairy Bracket (Postia pelliculosa) on a stringybark within one of our survey transects, as well as some of the same target species we’d seen at the first survey – the Golden-eye Lichen (Teloschistes chrysophthalmus) and White Punk (Laetiporus portentosus).
We also found the recycler Rhizochaete filamentosa in great abundance, which we have recorded as a target species because of its prevalence at all of our sites this year.
We also found a range of other non-target species including:
- Laccaria – a plant partner
- Dark-tipped Coral (Clavulina vinaceocervina) – a plant partner
- Peziza cup fungus – a recycler
- Jellybells (Heterotextus sp) – a recycler
- Orange Moss Navel (Rickenella fibula) – biotrophic with mosses
- Hairy Curtain Crust (Stereum hirsutum) – a recycler
All of our records of target species were captured here – Crafers West iNaturalist project.
We thank project partners Hills Biodiversity, and in particular Warren and Judy Hilton, for all their generous support as site hosts!
A big thanks also to Jessica Bamford who has helped out as an event leader at every survey, and provided a lot of valuable fungi identification and iNaturalist support to volunteers!
Murraylands and Riverland education activities
Project partners the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board tested out their Find our Fungi! resource with school groups over the past winter. These sessions saw 91 students from across the Murraylands and Riverland region test out their fungi identification skills while learning about the crucial and exciting role of fungi within their local ecosystems! Beyond honing identification skills, students also learnt about the role of citizen science in learning about, mapping and conserving fungi. Students practiced their photography skills and uploading to iNaturalist so that they can continue to contribute to Fungimap projects into the future!
We are now collaborating with the Education team to develop a fungi learning module for schools that teachers will be able to use in both a supported and unsupported capacity, which focusses on the fungi functional groups and will be trialled at schools next year.
Next steps
The fungi, habitat and rainfall data from this year’s trial sites and surveys has been analysed by a quantitative ecologist at the University of Adelaide, and is now being reviewed by the project team. This will inform decisions about changes needed to the survey methodology and site requirements for next year to enable us to answer our research question, and do so in the most efficient way possible.
Our project team are busy undertaking lots of site visits to find 10 total sites which reflect both good and degraded condition habitat, and will be a range of national park, conservation park, Trees for Life, and private sites through the Mount Lofty Ranges.
We are also working on training materials to help scale up our operations next fungi season!
We recently shared our learnings at a SciStarter citizen science workshop, and have been invited to present about the project at other local networking events.
You can continue to follow us on instagram @fungiforfunction
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For more information, please contact fungiforfunction@gmail.com
This project is being delivered in collaboration with many partner organisations including the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Trees for Life, Hills Biodiversity, Kersbrook Landcare, Second Nature Conservancy, CSIRO (ALA), University of Adelaide, and the Willunga Environment Centre.
The project is supported by a grant from the South Australian Government’s Citizen Science Fund.
