Welcome to Dr. R. Greg Thorn's Home Page
Western University, Canada
Department of Biology

Fungal ecology and systematics
Curator, University of Western Ontario Herbarium

My office is in room 3047, Biological & Geological Sciences Building Telephone: Office (519) 661-2111 x88647 FAX: (519) 661-3935 Email: rgthorn@uwo.ca Mailing Address: Department of Biology, Western University, 1151 Richmond St. N., London, ON N6A 5B7, Canada.

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]
• 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)
  Carolinian Agaricomycetes: compiling and confirming the records of mushroom fungi from the Carolinian Zone, and adding new records by traditional collecting of fruiting bodies and metagenomics of DNA extracted from soil
  Determining the functional significance of fungal diversity in litter decay and the soil ecosystem, including agriculture
• 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

Teaching

Current courses
• Flora & Vegetation of Ontario (BIO-3403A, next offered September-December 2023) [Official course web-site is accessed through OWL ]
• Evolution of Plants (BIO-3404F, next offered September-December 2024) [Official course web-site is accessed through OWL ]
• Biology of the Fungi (BIO-3218G, January-April 2023) [Official course web-site is accessed through OWL ]
• Tropical Biodiversity Field Course, co-taught with Dr. Nina Zitani (BIO-3220Z, last offered August 2019) See course blog at http://atwestern.typepad.com/experiential_learning/ and a listing of other field courses through the Ontario Universities Program in Field Biology (OUPFB) at http://www.oupfb.ca/modules.html .

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
• 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.

Some Useful Links

Area de Conservación Guanacaste Home Page

Organization for Tropical Studies Home Page

INBio Facebook Page (Instito Nacional de Biodiversidad)

Biotropica : the journal

Revista de Biología Tropical

Students

Current Graduate and Undergraduate Students

• William van Hemessen (MSc student; Macrofungi of Carolinian Canada) 01/2023--
• Amber Patten (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic analysis of Elaphomyces from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) 09/2022-04/2023
• Ryan Matteazzi (Honours Thesis student; Multigene phylogeny of Exidia species) 09/2022-04/2023
• Makayla Lloyd (MSc student; Bioprospecting in Pleurotus) 09/2022--
• Julien Koga (MSc student; Production of erinacine A in North American species of Hericium) 09/2022--
• Rachel Rajsp (MSc student; Fungal communities in Ginseng Replant Disease) 05/2021--
• Alicia Banwell (MSc student; Mycorrhizal nurse trees and mycorrhizal fungi in Newfoundland) 01/2021--
• Katarina Kukolj (MSc student; Impact of Lepista on soil microbial and microfaunal communities) 01/2021--

Some Former students:

• Marianna Wallace (MSc student; Mycobiomes associated with yield in winter wheat) 09/2019-12/2022
• Noor Saeed-Cheema (MSc student; Manipulating the root mycobiome to improve plant performance and reduce pathogen pressure in corn, Zea mays) 01/2020-08/2022, now with BioRender
• Wasan Haider (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic analysis of angel wings) 09/2021-04/2022, continuing at Western
• Elizabeth Ralph (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic analysis of Hohenbuehelia) 09/2021-04/2022, now in Nursing at University of Toronto
• Asina Suzuk (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic analysis of Newfoundland false truffles, Elaphomyces) 09/2021-04/2022, continuing at Western
• Donald (Tyler) Watson (MSc student; Exploiting saprotrophic fungi for weed control) 01/2020-12/2021, now Research Director at Whitecrest Mushrooms in nearby Putnam ON
• Megan Lambert (MSc student jointly supervised with Mark Bernards; Mycobiome of ginseng gardens) 09/2018-07/2021, now with A&L Biologicals, Inc. (now part of Deveron Corp.)
• Lahari Basu (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic placement of Ascomycota nLSU OTUs) 09/2020-04/2021, now in a PhD program at Carleton University
• Lauren Eldred (Honours Thesis student; Phylogenetic placement of Basidiomycota nLSU OTUs) 09/2020-04/2021, now in Vet school at Guelph
• Nicole Melzer (MSc student; The mycobiome of ginseng gardens) 09/2020-05/2021
• Michael Bonneville (Honours Thesis student; Genomics of white and golden chanterelles of Newfoundland) 09/2019-04/2020, now doing his MSc at Western with David Smith
• Katarina Kukolj (Honours Thesis student; Shared root-inhabiting fungi of orchids and ash in Newfoundland) 09/2019-04/2020, now doing her MSc in my lab at Western
• Rebecca Spencer (Honours Thesis student; Are there shared root-inhabiting fungi in orchids and ash in Newfoundland?) 09/2019-04/2020, now doing her MSc in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa
• Alicia Banwell (Honours Thesis student; White chanterelles of Newfoundland) 09/2018-04/2019, now doing her MSc in my lab at Western. See Fungal Planet 1144
• Anna Basu (Honours Thesis student; Systematics of Hohenbuehelia) 09/2018-04/2019, now in Medical school at Western
• Angela Shaw (Honours Thesis student; Systematics of the Exidia recisa complex) 09/2018-04/2019, now doing her MSc in Medical Genomics at University of Toronto
• Morgan Walker (Honours Thesis student; Improving the identifications of unknown mushroom DNAs extracted from soil) 09/2017-04/2018, now doing her MSc in Neurophysiology at Western
• Alexandra (Lexi) Poelman (Honours Thesis student; Fungi in tree roots from caves and mines in New Brunswick) 09/2017-04/2018, now practicing chiropractic medicine
• Sarah Allan (MSc student; Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in natural and restored tallgrass prairie) 09/2013-08/2017
• Nimalka Weerasuriya (MSc student; Fungi associated with common buckthorn, Rhamnus cathartica , in the London area) 09/2013-03/2017, now at Oklahoma State University
• Dr. Asma Asemaninejad (PhD student; Climate change effects on fungal communities in peat) 01/2013-12/2016. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1754504817300193 and https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00248-016-0875-9.pdf and http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0159043, now a research scientist at NRC in Ottawa
• Christopher Hay (MSc student; Agaricomycetes of Ontario tallgrass prairies) 09/2014-08/2016, now an environmental GIS consultant in Manitoba. See CFN paper.
• Dr. Jennifer McDonald (PhD student; Systematics of Stigmatolemma and the cyphelloid Resupinateae) 09/2007-08/2015. Jen is now on faculty at Saint MaryÕs University, Halifax.
• Catriona Catomeris (4th year student co-supervised with Dr. Hugh Henry ; Impacts of nitrogen deposition on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in restored tallgrass prairie) 09/2014-04/2015. MSc degree at UBC.
• Dana Kavanagh (4th year student; Epiphytic lichen communities in conservation areas surrounding London Ontario: impacts of atmospheric nitrogen?) 09/2014-04/2015.
• Vlad Deboveanu (4th year student; Health and fungal disease survey of street trees in London Ontario) 09/2013-04/2014. Followed with a degree in Education, now teaching high school science in Toronto
• Zoe Chatzidakis (4th year student; Fungi in roots of black ash and showy ladyslipper orchid) 09/2012-04/2013
• Jee Kim (4th year student; Cantharellus species of Newfoundland) 09/2012-04/2013 - See http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/cjb-2016-0213. Now in a PhD at Dalhousie in Halifax.
• Alexandra Timoshenko (4th year student; Lichen communities on Norway Maples in London) 09/2012-04/2013
• Jessie Wong Furze (MSc student; Agaricomycetes in tilled and untilled agricultural soils) 09/2010-08/2012.
• Madeline Robson (4th year student; Auricularia on hardwoods in North America) 09/2011-04/2012
• Morgan Barber (4th year student; Auricularia from Newfoundland) 09/2010-04/2011
• Rachel Beretta (NSERC USRA student and volunteer; Inocybe and other interesting agarics) 09/2010-04/2013. Graduate of med school at McMaster
• Megan DeMille (4th year student; Basidiomycetes from New Brunswick Bats) 09/2010-04/2011.
• Cassia Vilneff Shugg (MSc student; Cantharellus in Newfoundland) 01/2010-04/2011. Taught high school science, then completed an MBA in agribusiness at Guelph.
• Dr. Holly Stover (NSERC - USRA and 4th year thesis student; Importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to plant diversity in tallgrass prairies) 05/2009-08/2010; completed her MSc in restoration ecology at the University of Alberta and has now completed her PhD in the lab of Dr. Hugh Henry
• Dr. Aniruddho Hoque (MSc student; Diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in tallgrass prairies) 09/2008-04/2011. Completed his PhD with Dr. Shiva Singh
• Barbara Bahnmann (MSc student; Diversity of Agaricomycetes in agricultural soils) 01/2004-04/2009. Now pursuing a PhD in molecular mycology in the Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic.
• Alexandra Koziak (MSc student; Nematoctonus in Costa Rica) 09/2003-03/2006, has moved on to teaching in Calgary
• Dr. Mirjam Urb (MSc student; Fungi associated with caterpillars in Costa Rica) 09/2003-01/2006, completed her PhD in the lab of Dr. Don Sheppard at McGill University in Montreal, and is now working in cancer research in Lyon, France.
• Dr. Michael Lynch (MSc student; Impacts of tillage on soil basidiomycetes)09/2002-12/2004, 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).

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Last update: 23 February 2023
Created and maintained by R. Greg Thorn