Welcome to Dr. R. Greg Thorn's Home Page
Western University, Canada
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
-
Evolution & Ecology section of Biology for Science I (BIO-1001A, October-December 2010) [Official course web-site is accessed through
WebCT
Taught in 2011/12 by
Dr. Beth MacDougall-Shackleton
]
-
Flora and Vegetation of Ontario (BIO-2404, to be offered next in Intersession, 14 May to 20 June 2012 - MW 12:30-5:30).
Sign up - and tell your friends!
-
Introduction to the Fungi BIO-3218, January-April 2012) [Official course web-site is accessed through
WebCT
]
-
Evolution of Plants (BIO-3404F, offered next in September-December 2012) [Official course web-site is accessed through
WebCT
]
-
Plants as a Human Resource (BIO-2217b January-April); is now taught by
Dr. Richard Gardiner
-
Environmental Biology (BIO-2485b, January-April) will be taught in 2011/12 by Dr. Christie Stewart.
- 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 2010-11). 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
-
Save the Rincon Rainforest
page (a
large
file with text, maps and photos, updated 8 April 2008)
- Note: In Canada, people can make a tax deductible donation to Rincon Rainforest Fund/Tropical Conservancy and send it to Tropical Conservancy, 94 Four Seasons Drive, Nepean, Ontario, K2E 7S1, Canada. This is fully tax-deductible in Canada. See also
http://www.tc-biodiversity.org/rincon.htm
.
Some Useful Links
Area de Conservación Guanacaste Home Page
Organization for Tropical Studies Home Page
INBio Home Page
(Instito Nacional de Biodiversidad)
Biotropica
: the journal
Revista de Biología Tropical
Mycology Workshop
We are hosting the annual Great Lakes - Saint Lawrence Mycology Workshop at Western on 28-29 April 2012. Click here for more information.
Students
Graduate Student Opportunities
Fungal ecology, including plant-fungal, fungal-invertebrate, and fungal-microbial interactions; fungal systematics and phylogeny; fungal diversity and conservation
Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students
-
Jennifer McDonald
(PhD student; Systematics of
Stigmatolemma
and the cyphelloid Resupinateae) 09/2007--
-
Jessie Wong
(MSc student; Agaricomycetes in tilled and untilled agricultural soils) 09/2010--
-
Madeline Robson
(4th year student;
Auricularia
on hardwoods in North America) 09/2011--
Some Former students:
-
Barbara Bahnmann
(MSc student; Diversity of Agaricomycetes in agricultural soils) 01/2004-04/2009. Now a Biology lab coordinator at the University of Alberta.
-
Morgan Barber
(4th year student;
Auricularia
from Newfoundland) 09/2010-04/2011. Now pursuing her MSc in microbiology at UBC.
-
Rachel Beretta
(NSERC USRA student and volunteer;
Inocybe
and other interesting agarics) 09/2010--.
-
Megan DeMille
(4th year student; Basidiomycetes from New Brunswick Bats) 09/2010-04/2011.
-
Aniruddho Hoque
(MSc student; Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in tallgrass prairies) 09/2008-04/2011. Now pursuing his PhD with
Dr. Shiva Singh
.
-
Alexandra Koziak
(MSc student;
Nematoctonus
in Costa Rica) 09/2003-03/2006, has moved on to teaching in Calgary
-
Dr. Michael Lynch
(MSc student; Impacts of tillage on soil basidiomycetes) 09/2002-12/2004, has completed 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).
-
Holly Stover
(NSERC - USRA and 4th year thesis student; Importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to plant diversity in tallgrass prairies) 05/2009-08/2010 (has moved on to her MSc at the University of Alberta)
-
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
-
Cassia Vilneff
(MSc student;
Cantharellus
in Newfoundland) 01/2010-04/2011. Now teaching high school science.
Last update: 8 March 2012
Created and maintained by R. Greg Thorn
