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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		What researchers can learn from heat-resistant fungal spores
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:01
	Publish Date:		2016-03-26 19:31:36
	Description:		Fungal spores that had survived a devastating forest fire left researchers to wonder if the original diversity of fungi could ever recover. Ecologist Sydney Glassman of the University of California, Berkeley says that actively growing fungi died during the Rim Fire in California’s Sierra Nevada region, but heat-resistant spores remained. "One of the reasons I was interested in studying what fungi are going to survive disturbances was because I know that disturbances are becoming even more common due to climate change." To track recovery, Glassman is studying fungal dispersal. This happens through factors like animals, wind, and rain. Glassman is looking at both spores and actively growing fungi, which can grow as masses known as mycelium. "We put bags in the soil, and let mycelium grow through them, and sequence sample that. And then we also use Mason jars to sample the rain, and see what spores are coming in via the rain. So we’ve been using a multitude of methods to determine what fungi are coming in, so we can determine the succession."
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