The Fungus Among Us: Cultivating and Sequencing Fungi from Diverse Environments: Undergraduate Research That Connects Mycelium to Students and Our World

This project will provide stipends and research materials for NMHU undergraduates. By supporting student-driven fungal ecology projects, we will enhance experiential research training, build interdisciplinary collaboration between Forestry and Biology, and contribute new knowledge about fungal communities in New Mexico’s ecosystems. We propose to support three undergraduate lead researchers and embed mycology-focused projects into course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) that will engage ~25 additional students. Our objectives are: 1) Isolate and DNA barcode fungi cultured from wildfire smoke samples to characterize species diversity. 2) Extract DNA from decaying wood in watershed restoration projects and identify fungal communities using high-throughput sequencing. 3) Determine fungal communities associated with reforestation nursery stock under experimental inoculation treatments. 4) Implement a CURE in Wildland Pest Management to study conifer wood decay fungi in Northern New Mexico in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service. 5. Conduct a soil fungal community assessment at the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge (USFWS) across grassland–woodland ecotones managed for cultural bison herds.