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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		Ecologists simulate disturbances to gain insight into forest health
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:04
	Publish Date:		2016-05-25 00:00:00
	Description:		Disturbances like fires and clear cutting can leave forests devoid of vegetation, but not quite lifeless. By simulating these disturbances, ecologist Sydney Glassman of the University of California, Berkeley found types of fungi that could survive these catastrophic conditions. The fungi known as ectomycorrhizal, which pine trees rely on for nutrients, could in fact remain in the soil as dormant spores, even if its actively growing companions are destroyed. "I was sampling in pine forests across North America. I was working in a collaborative group, most of the people were taking soil and sampling what was the active ectomycorrhizal fungi. And then what I did was, at those exact same locations, I simulated disturbance. So I dried out the soil, left it hanging out for several months, and then I planted seedlings in it and determined what ectomycorrhizal fungi were able to survive this disturbance and colonize plant seedlings. So I could pretty much tell you with at least 80-90 percent probability, which fungi are going to survive in any given pine forest in North America."
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