March General Meeting with Tom Bruns

Name: March General Meeting with Tom Bruns
Start: 2026-04-14T19:30:00-07:00
End: 2026-04-14T21:30:00-07:00
Location: 3501 NE 41st St, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98105

Schedule

Tue Apr 14 2026 at 07:30 pm to 09:30 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

3501 NE 41st St, Seattle, WA, United States, Washington 98105 | Seattle, WA

Tom Bruns - A burning interest in fungi - Recolonization in the post-fire fungal community. This meeting is free and open to the public. Come at 7pm to socialize, program starts at 7:30pm.
Tom Bruns is an emeritus professor in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is best known for his work in ectomycorrhizal systems where he has contributed to the understanding of community and population structure, spore banks, mycoheterotrophic plants, spore dispersal, and molecular method development. His later work focused on post-fire saprobic fungal communities, and involved experimental fire manipulations, coupled with gene expression and soil metabolomics.
Tom's talk will address the question, "How do fungi survive or recolonize after wildfire?" This question was the basis for multiple studies in the Bruns lab over three decades. Some of these studies were initiated after wildfires burned through research plots that were originally set up for other questions, while other studies involved controlled experiments. All used DNA-based identification methods that allowed the fungi to be identified in their vegetative and spore stages.
Results from these studies show that there is a major turn-over in fungal species following fire. This includes both mutualistic fungi associated with tree roots (i.e., ectomycorrhizal fungi) and saprobic fungi that live on dead material. Those fungi that recolonize rapidly do so primarily from spores and other propagules that have laid dormant in the soil for decades as "spore banks", and at least some of the species appear to have heat-stimulated spores. There is a set of saprophytic fungi that are well-known to occur after fire that have been called "fireplace fungi" or "phoenicoid fungi". Many earlier studies have shown that these fungi consistently fruit after fires, and are generally restricted to such post-fire habitats. From DNA methods we now know that some of these dominate the soil within days after a fire and have some ability to digest charcoal.
Tom has mentored 19 PhD students and 19 postdoctoral associates. He has taught multiple courses on mycology at Berkeley and won the Weston Teaching Award from Mycological Society of America in 2007 and the Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Natural Resources at UC Berkeley for his efforts. He served as president of the Mycological Society of America in 2011-2012, the president of the International Mycorrhiza Society from 2015-2017, and received the Distinguished Mycologist Award in 2018 from the Mycological Society of America for his career achievements in the field. More details on his early path into mycology can be gleaned from his interview for the Oral History for Mycology. His publication record includes over 200 papers primarily in the fields of fungal ecology and systematics.
The meeting is open to the public and will be offered both in person and via Zoom for those unable to attend physically. Tom Bruns has graciously agreed to allow PSMS to record this presentation for later viewing on the PSMS website (members only)