Welcome to Dr. R. Greg Thorn's Home Page
The University of Western Ontario
Department of Biology
Fungal ecology and systematics
Research Projects
- Phylogenetic systematics and ecology
Phylogenetic relationships of litter- and wood-decaying basidiomycetes and the evolution of various nutritional modes: wood decay types, ectomycorrhizae, and parasitism of bacteria, nematodes and other microfauna
- HoHome : The Hohenbuehelia Home Page [some links are gone but will return soon]
- Keys to Nematophagous fungi
- Biodiversity
Discovering some of the "missing" fungal diversity (the difference between the approximately 300,000 species of fungi described to date and the 1,500,000 which have been speculated to exist)
Determining the functional significance of fungal diversity in litter decay and the soil ecosystem
- MOCAT: A Tropical Microbial Observatory on Caterpillars: MOCAT web page (Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF DEB-0084224 )
- Nematode-destroying fungi of Costa Rica (Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF DEB-0072756 )
- Effects of different disturbance regimes, including different agronomic treatments such as till and no-till practices, on fungal diversity and the effects of these changes on ecosystem function
- Basidiomycete diversity in agricultural and forest soils
- Soil aggregation by russuloid basidiomycetes
Teaching
-
Flora and Vegetation of Ontario (BIO-2404, September-December 2009 and alternate years) [Official course web-site is accessed through WebCT]
-
Introduction to the Fungi BIO-3218, January-April 2010) [Official course web-site is accessed through WebCT]
-
Evolution of Plants (BIO-3404F, September-December 2010 and alternate years)
-
Plants as a Human Resource ( BIO-2217b January-April); will be taught in 2010 by Dr. Richard Gardiner
-
Environmental Biology (BIO-2485b, January-April) is now taught by Ben Rubin .
- The former Field Studies in Plant Sciences (PS-490a) has become "Flora and Vegetation of Algonquin Park," an Ontario Universities' Program in Field Biology field course (not offered in 2008-9). Click here to view other OUPFB field courses.
Costa Rica
Conservation
Save valuable pieces of Costa Rican tropical forest : an urgent appeal for funds for the Rincon Rainforest
Some Useful Links
Area de Conservación Guanacaste Home Page
Organization for Tropical Studies Home Page
INBio Home Page (Instito Nacional de Biodiversidad) [or try its
faster mirror site in Alberta ]
Biotropica : the journal
Revista de Biología Tropical
Photo Gallery
Photo gallery of Costa Rican fungi, occasional scenes, and other critters [will return soon]
Students
Graduate Student Opportunities
Fungal ecology, including plant-fungal, fungal-invertebrate, and fungal-microbial interactions; fungal systematics and phylogeny; fungal diversity and conservation
Current and Recent Graduate and Undergraduate Students
- Aniruddho Hoque (MSc student; Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in tallgrass prairies) 09/2008--
- Jennifer McDonald (PhD student; Systematics of Stigmatolemma and the cyphelloid Resupinateae) 09/2007--
- Holly Stover (NSERC - USRA and 4th year thesis student; Importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to plant diversity in tallgrass prairies) 05/2009--
Former students:
- Michael Lynch (MSc student; Impacts of tillage on soil basidiomycetes) 09/2002-12/2004, has moved on to his PhD in the lab of Dr. Kirsten Muller at the University of Waterloo. Co-winner of the Canadian Botanical Association 2007 Luella Weresub Award for best Canadian student paper in mycology published in 2006 , based on the first paper from his MSc work. Click here to see the paper (pdf).
- Mirjam Urb (MSc student; Fungi associated with caterpillars in Costa Rica) 09/2003-01/2006, has moved on to her PhD in the lab of Dr. Don Sheppard at McGill University in Montreal
- Alexandra Koziak (MSc student; Nematoctonus in Costa Rica) 09/2003-03/2006, has moved on to teacher's college in Calgary
- Tammy Robinson (Honours BSc student;
Ramaria from Newfoundland) 09/2005-04/2006
- Barbara Bahnmann (MSc student; Diversity of Agaricomycetes in agricultural soils) 01/2004-04/2009.
Last update: 6 November 2009
Created and maintained by R. Greg Thorn
