The Boston Mycological Club and the Friends of the Farlow hosted Dr. Lynne Boddy's "Rotten Trees" talk via Zoom on November 8, 2020. Lynne Boddy is Professor in the School of Biosciences at Cardiff University, Wales. A fungal ecologist, Dr. Boddy’s research centers on the ecology of wood decomposition, including wood decomposition processes, synecology and autecology. She pioneered the study of fungal community structure and dynamics in wood and has related community structure and development to decomposition rate. A deeper understanding of interactions and their effects has come from studying gene expression during interspecific interactions in near natural conditions. She and her research group have studied the production of volatile and diffusible organic compounds during mycelial interactions. Her investigation of the network architecture of mycelia growing in soil reveals the foraging ecology and key roles of cord-forming basidiomycetes in nutrient translocation and wood decay in forest ecosystems. Dr. Boddy is a leading authority on basidiomycete ecology and has published over 250 papers as well as books on the ecology of wood decomposition.   

A video recording of the talk is forthcoming. Many thanks to Dr. Boddy for an amazing and well attended presentation!