Don't be tardy to the party - come show your love for water bears and fungi at our February monthly MAW meeting!
The meeting will be held via Zoom (link below).
MAW President Elizabeth Hargrave will kick things off with updates on club activities and fungi in the news. Annie Weissman will lead the virtual ID table, highlighting recent iNat observations by our members. Join MAW's iNat project here and upload your finds!
Next, Dr. William R. “Randy” Miller will teach us about the adorable, nearly indestructible microscopic aquatic creatures known as tardigrades! Dr. Miller is director of biological research and an assistant professor of biology at Baker University in Kansas. He received his bachelor of arts and master’s degrees from the University of Montana and his Ph.D. from the University of New England.
Dr. Alfredo Justo will then present his talk:
Biodiversity of chanterelles (Cantharellus, Craterellus) and hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum) in New Brunswick (Canada)
Despite their popularity as edible wild mushrooms, the actual diversity of chanterelles (species of the genera Cantharellus and Craterellus) and hedgehog mushrooms (Hydnum) in New Brunswick is understudied. We lack data about which species occur in the province or what are their distributions, ecology and population trends. The lack of baseline knowledge about fungal diversity is a common problem across North America, and mostly stems from (i) the generalized used of European species names for similarly-looking species occurring in North America; and (ii) the need to study fungal diversity by a combination of traditional (morphological, ecological) and molecular (DNA sequencing) approaches. We will present a preliminary catalog of chanterelles and hedgehog mushrooms in the province, based on the research carried out since 2021 at the New Brunswick Museum, with partial funding by the NB Wildlife Trust Fund.
Dr. Justo is Curator of Botany & Mycology at the New Brunswick Museum (NBM). He oversees the curation and growth of the NBM Herbarium, which comprises over 100,000 specimens of plants, fungi, lichens, bryophytes and algae from New Brunswick and neighboring regions. Dr. Justo completed his PhD in systematic mycology at the University of Vigo, Spain, in 2006. Following several years of projects in Spain related to mycological conservation and diversity, he spent six years (2009-2014) in a postdoctoral research position with Dr. David Hibbett at Clark University (Massachusetts, USA), focusing on molecular systematics of mushroom-forming fungi. Research and teaching positions followed, in Mexico, Spain, and eventually back to the USA where Dr. Justo was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Biology Department at Worcester State University and a Visiting Scholar at Clark University. More on Dr. Justo’s research interests & publications at https://alfredojusto.weebly.com/
Zoom Link:
https://zoom.us/j/96693690911?pwd=YWdyeXh1bHF1N1UyNjNieFovNWFUZz09
Meeting ID 966 9369 0911
Passcode 330827
One Tap Mobile +13017158592,,96693690911#,,,,*330827# US (Washington DC)
Find your local Zoom access number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kQ9hr47WO
