Historical concepts of Clavicipitaceae have included a broad range of species that display diverse morphologies, ecological modes and host associations. When subjected to multigene phylogenetic investigation of evolutionary history, the family was found to be polyphyletic, largely driven by diversity in the genus Cordyceps, previously containing over 400 taxa. The...
Before the arrival of Euro-Americans, the inland Pacific Northwest was settled by native
people whose frequent intentional burning of the landscape promoted open stands
dominated by large fire-resistant ponderosa pine. Fire suppression for nearly a century,
livestock grazing, and logging of the largest trees has resulted in forests characterized by...
Anthropogenic induced climate change is predicted to alter distribution of existing plant populations. As plants migrate over space and time, populations often fragment and contract, affecting basic elements of population dynamics (e.g., population size, gene flow, genetic diversity, etc.). Little is known, however, how these impacts on plant species will...
Rhizopogon vesiculosus is a common ectomycorrhizal (EM) symbiont of Pseudotusga menziesii (Douglas-fir) in the coast range of the Pacific Northwest. The species has been studied for its systematics, genet size, population structure, and competitive ability in several field and experimental studies. This thesis seeks to provide a more thorough characterization...
An increased understanding of secondary metabolism in fungi is important for both biological and societal reasons. The ascomycete genus, Tolypocladium, is an ideal system to explore secondary metabolism characterization, ecology, evolution and regulation. The genus produces and has the genomic potential to produce a wide array of metabolites. Paired with...
Fungi in the genus Tolypocladium are diverse in their host associations, but the predominant ecologies include parasites of the ectomycorrhizal genus Elaphomyces and pathogens of insects. The aim of this dissertation research is to examine the evolution of these fungi and their host associations. To accomplish this several lines of...
The fungal ascomycete genus Otidea as represented in the Pacific Northwest of North America includes eight well known species and two poorly-known species. Cladistic analysis utilizing characters from ribosomal DNA and morphology allowed the development of a robust phylogenetic species concept for Otidea. The combination of characters from the ribosomal...
Monophyly of the gomphoid-phalloid clade was confirmed based on multigene phylogenetic analyses. Four major subclades (Hysterangiales, Geastrales, Gomphales and Phallales) were also demonstrated to be monophyletic. The interrelationships among the subclades were, however, not resolved, and alternative topologies could not be rejected statistically. Nonetheless, most analyses showed that the Hysterangiales...