FUNDIS December 2023 Newsletter
Letter from the Editor
Dear FUNDIS Supporter,
Typically I am happily typing away in the background, but I wanted to pop onto this last newsletter of 2023 to relay my excitement about the jaw-dropping discoveries that have come across my desk this year. It has been my great honor to be able to report on all these amazing finds. Furthermore, it has been incredibly moving to see so many people in so many different places, near and far in North America - from Alaska to Florida - come together in support of fungi. Wow guys, community mycology is really going strong! Perhaps stronger than ever before.
We at FUNDIS are grateful for all of our employees, volunteers, and financial supporters, as well as the fungi enthusiasts, academics, mycopreneurs, and community mycologists who have helped us make great strides in 2023. Sending you all warm wishes in these last two weeks of the year. I can hardly contain my excitement to continue the momentum this organization has garnered, and embark into new frontiers alongside you all in 2024!
Happy Holidays,
Mandie Quark, FUNDIS Communications Lead
Happy 6th Birthday to FUNDIS
Photo credit: Stu Pickell
California FUNDIS Year 1 Report
We are thrilled to announce the California Fungal Diversity Survey Year 1 Report is LIVE on the front page of our website!!! If you haven’t yet, we highly recommend visiting fundis.org, or clicking the green button below to access to this data-packed and visually stunning report!
The CA FUNDIS project was initiated to provide a baseline of California's fungal biodiversity, toward creating a successful model for fungal documentation and conservation that can be replicated across the continent in the future. Thanks to the dedication of dozens of individuals comprising the CA FUNDIS team, California is now the first ever U.S. state on the precipice of understanding their fungal diversity. The immensity of work that went into this, alongside the beautiful photos and clever graphical representations definitely make this report worthy of a good read. Thank you CA FUNDIS squad!
First Ever FUNDIS Live Event
On Monday December 11th, FUNDIS hosted its first ever live in-person event, at a secret location in Brooklyn, NYC. In typical underground warehouse fashion, this event was held in a tight space with low lighting - a perfect environment for a theoretical discussion about how fungi might perceive humans.
Thank you to our Panelists: LinYee Yuan (Editor, MOLD magazine), Dr. Patricia Kaishian (Mycologist & Writer), Mustafa Saifuddin (PhD Soil Ecologist) and Sophie Strand (Writer & Compost Heap). Thank you also to our moderator FUNDIS Director Gabriela D'Elia and to Bé Bếp Baby Kitchen for the delicious food.
For everyone who could not attend in person, a voice recording of this event will be available on our website soon!
Photo credits: Tatsiana Navasiolava
Sequencing Update
2023 has been a remarkable year for sequencing at FUNDIS. We generated 5,000 ITS barcode sequences from the taxpayer-funded CA FUNDIS project, nearly all of which were completed in-house using the revolutionary Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION platform. Of those sequences, almost half have been analyzed and validated by a team of paid community scientists from around the country. Have a look at the CA FUNDIS Year 1 Report for all the juicy details. In addition to CA FUNDIS, we have begun sequencing for the newly minted Southeast Rare Fungi Challenge and have six fresh sequences from this years collecting efforts representing Wolfinia aurantiopsis and Gloeomucro sp.
We have some big plans for CA FUNDIS in 2024 including sequencing additional barcoding regions and expanding our sequencing laboratory. The FUNDIS local project sequences will begin rolling in sometime during Q1 thanks to the generous support of Stephen Russell and Mycota Lab in association with the Hoosier Mushroom Society. We will need a team of volunteers to help validate these sequences, so keep on the lookout for an announcement when we begin to assemble our volunteer team.
Harte Singer, FUNDIS Sequencing Lead
Photo credit: Mandie Quark
West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge
Featured Mushroom: Neoalbatrellus subcaeruleoporus
We are proud to announce that the West Coast Rare Fungi Challenge just entered its 4th year. One of the West Coast Rare 20 - Neoalbatrellus subcaeruleoporus - was recently found (iNat ID: 190746350) by CA FUNDIS Collector Mandy Hackney @jellybaby3000 in a very special section of old-growth forest in Humboldt County, California.
This extraordinary sky-blue fungus, nicknamed the Little Blue Polypore (LBP), only has 131 observations on iNaturalist. The LBP has no taste or odor, but its pore surface is UV reactive and it stains orange in the presence of potassium hydroxide. LBP’s preferred habitat is unknown, but these specimens were found growing near old-growth redwood, Douglas fir and tan oak. They grew in abundance alongside the trail in Headwaters, a gated and protected area of old-growth forest that Mandy has a special collection permit in order to access.
The 7,472-acre Headwaters Forest Reserve, a now-protected old-growth forest is a special place that previously underwent almost unimaginable efforts receive its protection status. Headwaters was finally established in 1999 after a decade-long grassroots effort to protect the world’s last intact, old-growth redwood forest ecosystem. Headwaters Reserve is managed by the BLM in partnership with the CA Department of Fish and Wildlife, and FUNDIS has a permit in order to collect on a portion of the land that is otherwise only accessible to loggers.
We included a photo of the pristine forest taken by FUNDIS Social Media Volunteer Philip Dekat, who was along for the ride with Mandy on this rare visit to such an untouched place. The "blue marks of death" marking trees loggers sought to fell, still remain from the 1990s and can be seen in the last photo in this newsletter. Ultimately, monitoring the fungal diversity in a forest like Headwaters could help to keep its protection status secure far into the future.
Photo credit: Mandy Hackney
Photo credit: Phil Dekat
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