Symbiosis Continuum
Research Interests
Whenever I attend a scientific talk or read a paper, my question is always this: WHAT ABOUT THE FUNGI? So if you are looking to address this question in your own research, let me know!
Exploring the unknown, overlooked, and marginalized
I am fascinated by and drawn to the often overlooked, underappreciated, and yet integral critters of the world around us – lichens, fungi, slime molds. This fascination extends beyond my study organisms to ants, bryophytes, collembolans, mites, algae, tardigrades, and even to often-overlooked micronutrients such as sodium*.
* Scharnagl K, Scharnagl A, von Wettberg E (2017). Nature’s potato chip: the role of salty fungi in a changing world. On the Nature of Things, American Journal of Botany 104(5):641-644 https://doi.org/10.3732/ajb.1700034
Current Research
I am currently the Tucker Curator of Lichenology at the University & Jepson Herbaria, University of California Berkeley.
Here I am establishing my own research program, which includes investigating the ecology and evolution of tidal lichens, a natural history survey of the California lichen flora/funga, and expanding upon my research on the molecular basis of the lichen symbiosis.
I am keen to form collaborations with artists, and other members of the community! If you are interested in learning more about what we do with the lichen collections, please contact me: lichen_curator[at]berkeley.edu
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Long Term Research
One of my ongoing projects is a collaboration with Diane Ebert-May and the Niwot Ridge LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) site, monitoring lichen and vascular plant community dynamics in 30 permanently marked plots. As of right now, this is a 50 year dataset!
I am a proponent of long term ecological and evolutionary studies (the Beal seed viability experiment, the Lenski bacterial evolution experiment, the Grants’ study of the Galapagos finches, to name a few), with the understanding that, even if one were to establish a study in graduate school and run it into their 90’s, that would still serve as a mere blip from a geological or evolutionary perspective. If we are really to understand how the world works, we must begin to think on its scale. When I study lichens, I like to imagine living small and living slow. How would that change how I sense and react to the world?