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SUMMARY:Mycorrhizal fungal power- harnessing photosynthate and transformin
 g the Earth - Jonathon Leake\, Sheffield
DTSTART:20111201T160000Z
DTEND:20111201T170000Z
UID:TALK31552@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Jill Harrison
DESCRIPTION:Mycorrhizal fungi co-evolved with the earliest land plants ove
 r 450 million years ago\, in a symbiosis in which plants supply their fung
 al partners with sugars in return for mineral nutrients.  As land plants e
 volved to form the first forests\, proper soils developed and atmospheric 
 CO2 was drawn down into ocean carbonate sediments accumulating as a result
  of increasing weathering of continental silicates containing calcium.  Ho
 wever\, until recently the role of mycorrhizal fungi in these transformati
 ons of biogeochemical cycles have gained little attention.   I present new
  findings that demonstrate the importance of mycorrhizal fungi as potent a
 gents of mineral weathering\, driven by their access to 10-30% of plant ph
 otosynthate.  This has led to a new paradigm recognizing mycorrhizal fungi
  to have played a major role in the evolution of the chemistry of the land
 \, ocean and atmosphere since the advent of land plants\, their effects in
 tensifying through plant-fungal co-evolutionary advances progressively inc
 reasing carbon investment into these fungi.  The length of mycorrhizal myc
 elia in contemporary ecosystems is now astronomical- being far greater tha
 n the distance across our solar system\, and their importance as conduits 
 of organic carbon flux into soils is now exploited by more than 10% of pla
 nt species through mycoheterotrophy.
LOCATION:Department of Plant Sciences\, Large Lecture Theatre
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