Fungal Ecology & Diversity

Bill Sheehan, co-founder, Fungal Diversity Survey

Fungi are one of the three major groups of multicellular organisms on Earth yet they are far less well-known compared to plants or animals. Fungi evolved before plants, live inside all plants, provide nutrition to many plants and are the primary decay organisms that cycle dead plants back into nutrients. This course will start with an overview of fungal ecology and diversity. Students will then collect samples of fungi in the field and, in the final part of the class, examine the findings in relation to structure and function.