1. Effects of forest dieback on decomposition of dead wood

Given that forest dieback due to emerging pests is increasing under global warming, understanding the relationships between pests, climate, and wood decomposition is an urgent priority. My team is investigating the effects of forest dieback on decomposer fungal community and decomposition of dead wood all over the world.

2.Intelligence of fungi

Even fungi do not have brain and central nervous system, they can make memory and decision in response to environmental conditions. Thus, fungi have a primitive type of intelligence. We make fungal mycelium grow within a petri dish with certain stimuli and investigate how they respond, transfer information, and change morphology and physiology in non-stimulated part of their mycelium.

• “ Ecology impacts of fungal wood decay types” a review has been published in Ecological Research.

  In this review, I summarized current knowledge about the ecosystem functions of wood decomposition in forests with a particular focus on the effects of fungal wood decay types on the community composition of saproxylic organisms, forest tree regeneration, and carbon sequestration.

• “Ecological memory and relocation decisions in fungal mycelial networks: responses to quantity and location of new resources” has been published in The ISME Journal.

  Saprotrophic cord-forming basidiomycetes, with their mycelial networks at the soil/litter interface on the forest floor, play a major role in wood decomposition and nutrient cycling/relocation. Many studies have investigated foraging behaviour of their mycelium, but there is little information on their intelligence. Here, we investigate the effects of relative size of inoculum wood and new wood resource (bait) on the decision of a mycelium to remain in, or migrate from, inoculum to bait using Phanerochaete velutina as a model.