Oh My! Mycelia!

Hanish, Leuca

Oh My! Mycelia!

Persistent URL

https://dspace.allegheny.edu/handle/10456/56620

Author(s)

Hanish, Leuca

Date Issued

April 2023

Abstract

Increases of atmospheric carbon dioxide through the industrial age of human activity on the Earth has, according to most scientists, caused an alarming rate of global warming resulting in major negative impacts on the environment. Nonetheless, there are still few solutions being developed to reduce this trend. One method of reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide, which has been largely ignored, is the promotion of fungal growth. Fungi have great potential to sequester immense amounts of carbon dioxide. In doing so, the fungi also play a large role in ecosystem restoration, a major necessary component in fighting climate change. Climate change has decreased fungal health globally; therefore, promoting fungal growth could be vital. For these reasons, the experiment outlined in this study is designed primarily to assess which natural forested environments are favorable for greater and faster fungal growth. The results show which tree types, native to western Pennsylvania, promote the most fungal growth when that tree species sheds woody material to the forest floor or when the tree dies and falls, providing fungi with their primary food source, wood. The soil and wood samples were placed in a controlled environment and served as a replication of the woody debris covering forest floor soil as a means to observe how fungi grow under those controlled conditions. With the results of this study, new forest management plans could be developed with the intention of increasing the total mass of fungi that would be capable of sequestering more carbon across the planet.

Major

Environmental Science

Honors

Environmental Science and Sustainability, 2023

First Reader(s)

Choate, Beth