Chicago Botanic Garden

Education — Lenhardt Library

Current Books & Book Reviews

PHOTO: bookcover

John Dighton.
Fungi in Ecosystem Processes.
Mycology Series, Volume 17.
New York: Marcel Dekker, 2003.
cloth, 3,432 p., ISBN 0–824–74244–3, $175.

This book is written for upper-level students and researchers. Although it uses terminology and taxonomic language unfamiliar to someone not involved in the study of mycology, it should prove interesting and informative to anyone interested in the complexity and interconnectedness of ecosystems.

The approach author John Dighton takes in Fungi in Ecosystem Processes is to broadly examine a variety of different functional groups of fungi and the roles they play in ecosystems. The chapters are divided among the ecological processes of primary productivity (relating to both availability of nutrients and carbon fixation), secondary productivity (examining the interaction of fungi and fauna, population and community regulation, and fungi and humans) and how fungi are dealing with the way we are changing the planet.

The complexities of ecosystem processes are well illustrated in this book. Some people may be familiar with the symbiotic relationship between fungi and most of the world’s vascular plants. In this relationship plants provide carbohydrates to the fungi, while fungi transport mineral nutrients and water back to their host. Dighton reveals further complexities by describing synergisms between soil bacteria and fungi. The bacteria are involved in preparing attachment sites on host roots and enzyme production for enhanced nutrient uptake. Some of the information presented in the chapter on population regulation will prompt readers to re-think the definition of species competition. While it has been known for a while that, within a species, individuals are capable of transferring nutrients and water from one individual to another, more recent work has shown that individuals within different species can also share resources. Resource sharing of this kind may determine species relationships within plant communities. Different trophic levels of fungi have their intricate relationships as well. Examples are given of situations in which mycorrhizal fungi work in concert with saprophytic (decomposer) fungi to break down recalcitrant organic matter to free up nutrients.

Further exploration of Dighton’s book reveals one fascinating process or relationship after another; soil formation, plant pathogens, exotic species, impacts of global warming and many more. It is unfortunate, from the point of view of an ecologist, that most of the work presented in this book relates to agroecosystems or the controlled environment of mesocosum studies. This is not a fault of the author, but rather the simple reality that relatively little work has been carried out in natural systems.

Dighton’s book is very much a review of the current literature. More than 1,300 references have been delved into to provide the most recent thinking on the role of fungi in the environment. As might be expected when writing about a complex and difficult-to-study group of organisms, a fair amount of contradictory evidence has been found about the way fungi work. This is perhaps not so much a function of study design but of the ability of fungi to modify their role under different environmental conditions.

The only fault with this publication is the somewhat annoying frequency with which typos appear throughout the text. Fungi in Ecosystem Processes is nonetheless a fascinating book, filled with interesting and thought provoking information. The last chapter stimulates this thought process more by suggesting areas in which further and more detailed research are needed.

— James F. Steffen, ecologist, Chicago Botanic Garden.