UNH Today

English

UNH Media Relations

UNH Scholars' Repository

University of New Hampshire University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository Media Relations UNH Publications and Documents 4-11-2017 Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns UNH Today Follow this and additional works at: https://scholars.unh.edu/news Recommended Citation UNH Today, "Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns" (2017). UNH Today. 4909. https://scholars.unh.edu/news/4909 This News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the UNH Publications and Documents at University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Media Relations by an authorized administrator of University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository. For more information, please contact nicole.hentz@unh.edu. 5/17/2021 Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/news/release/2017/04/11/researchers-find-mushrooms-may-hold-clues-effect-carbon-dioxide-lawns 1/3(HTTPS://UNH.EDU)Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Cluesto E ect of Carbon Dioxide on LawnsTuesday, April 11, 2017DURHAM, N.H. – Since the Industrial Revolution, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hasrapidly increased. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire set out to determine how risingcarbon dioxide concentrations and di erent climates may alter vegetation like forests, croplands, and40 million acres of American lawns. They found that the clues may lie in an unexpected source,mushrooms.The researchers focused on American lawns because they knew that grass can play a key role in theglobal carbon cycle because it pulls carbon out of the atmosphere during photosynthesis; the processused by plants to absorb and harness energy from sunlight and convert it into chemical energy. Mostlawns across the United States are similar, but di er regionally in their relative proportions oftwo main types of grasses, C  grasses and C  grasses, which use di erent metabolic pathways forphotosynthesis. However, unlike trees, which build rings year a er year, grass leaves little behindto study, so researchers got creative turning to mushrooms which feed on the carbon in lawns.“We thought that mushrooms could be a valuable indicator of responses of lawns to carbon dioxide levels in ecosystems because they feed on the dead grass anddebris, or carbon, that lawns or other plants put into the ground,” said Erik Hobbie, research professor of terrestrial ecology at UNH and lead author on the study.“Since it is challenging to measure blades of grass from grassland ecosystems over decades, we turned to mushrooms, which are widely available throughprevious collected specimens in labs and museums.”In the study (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016JG003579/abstract), published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences and featuredas an article (https://eos.org/research-spotlights/mushrooms-could-provide-a-record-of-grassland-history) in the American Geophysical Union’s magazine Eos,Hobbie, UNH statistician Ernst Linder, and their colleagues looked at isotopic data from samples of the mushroom Amanita thiersii collected between 1982 and2009 from 26 locations in the southeastern and south central United States. The scientists combined these data with information on temperature, precipitation,and carbon dioxide concentrations over the same period to look at competition between the two kinds of grass, C  and C .(HTTPS://WWW.FACEBOU=HTTPS%3A%2F%2FWFIND-MUSHROOMS-MAY-HOLD-CLUES-EFFECT-CARBON-DIOXIDE-LAWNS)(HTTPS://TWITTETEXT=RESEARCFIND-MUSHROOMS-MAY-HOLD-CLUES-EFFECT-CARBON-DIOXIDE-LAWNS)(M IL O:?SUBJECTFIND-MUSHROOMAY-HOLD-CLUES-EFFECT-CARBON-DIOXIDE-LAWNS)AMANITA THIERSII IN LAWN. PHOTO CREDIT: COURTESY: MICHAEL KUO 3 43 4NEWSROOM(//WWW.UNH.EDU/UNHTODAY/NEWS)(/unhtoday/a5/17/2021 Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/news/release/2017/04/11/researchers-find-mushrooms-may-hold-clues-effect-carbon-dioxide-lawns 2/3C  grasses, such as wheat, oats, and ryegrass, are called cool-season plants and thrive in a temperature range of 65°–75° Fahrenheit. C  plants, which include corn,crabgrass, and bluestem grasses, flourish in warmer and drier environments. These warm-season plants and are more e icient than C  plants at photosynthesisunder low concentrations of carbon dioxide.Researchers found that the mushrooms, Amanita thiersii, appeared to be good integrators of the carbon in lawn grasses. Temperature was the dominant climaticinfluence over C  versus C  grass distribution. As carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased over those decades between 1982 and 2009 and temperatures rose,changes in grass competition and growth were reflected in the carbon of Amanita thiersii. With every 1°C increase in temperature, the proportion of carbon from Cgrasses, as found in the Amanita thiersii, decreased by 12%. But researchers also found that the relative proportion of C  grasses increased by 18.5% in response tothe increase in carbon dioxide concentrations from 341 to 387 parts per million. This suggests that rising carbon dioxide is already influencing plant competition onthe American landscape and that preserved specimens of plants and mushrooms could be used more widely to examine current responses to global change.This project was supported by grant DEB1146328 from the U.S. National Science Foundation and grant 2013-67014-21318 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The University of New Hampshire is a flagship research university that inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and humanservices, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. UNH’s research portfolio includes partnerships with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH,receiving more than $100 million in competitive external funding every year to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space. Editor's Notes: PHOTOS FOR DOWNLOAD:Amanita thiersii https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/athiersii-joe_mcfarland.jpg (//www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/athiersii-joe_mcfarland.jpg) Photo credit: Courtesy: Joe McFarlandAmanita thiersii in lawn https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/amanita_thiersii-3_individuals-_dscn3388.jpg(//www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/amanita_thiersii-3_individuals-_dscn3388.jpg) Photo credit: Courtesy: Michael KuoAmanita thiersii in lawn https://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/amanita_thiersii-lawn_ring.jpg (//www.unh.edu/unhtoday/sites/default/files/media/amanita_thiersii-lawn_ring.jpg) Photo credit: Courtesy: Michael Kuo 3 433 433VIEW ALLLATEST NEWSUNH Research Estimates 1.4 Million Children Have Yearly Violence-Related Medical Visits (/unhtoday/news/release/2021/05/12/unh-research-estimates-14-million-children-have-yearly-violence-related)May 12, 2021UNH RIFC 50 Franchise Index Surges in Q1 With Red Robin, Avis and Joint Chiropractic (/unhtoday/news/release/2021/05/11/unh-rifc-50-franchise-index-surges-q1-red-robin-avis-and-joint-chiropractic)May 11, 2021UNH Partners with Smuttynose Brewing Co. on New Lager (/unhtoday/news/release/2021/05/10/unh-partners-smuttynose-brewing-co-new-lager)May 10, 2021UNH Announces 2020 and 2021 Granite State Award and Honorary Degree Recipients (/unhtoday/news/release/2021/05/07/unh-announces-2020-and-2021-granite-state-award-and-honorary-degree)May 7, 2021UNH Research: More Than One Way for Animals to Survive Climate Change (/unhtoday/news/release/2021/05/05/unh-research-more-one-way-animals-survive-climate-change)May 5, 20215/17/2021 Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns | UNH Todayhttps://www.unh.edu/unhtoday/news/release/2017/04/11/researchers-find-mushrooms-may-hold-clues-effect-carbon-dioxide-lawns 3/3  SUBSCRIBE TO UNH TODAY (HTTPS://WWW.UNH.EDU/MAIN/UNH-TODAY-SUBSCRIPTION) (https://www.unh.edu)UNH Today is produced for the UNH community and for friends of UNH. The stories are written by the sta  of UNH Communications and Public A airs. (https://www.unh.edu/cpa) Email us: unhtoday.editor@unh.edu (mailto:unhtoday.editor@unh.edu). (mailto:unh.today@unh.edu)MANAGE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION      CONTACT US  (http://www.facebook.com/universityofnewhampshire) (http://twitter.com/UofNH) (http://www.youtube.com/u hvideo) (http://instagram.com/uofn /) (https://www.linkedin.com/edu/university-of-new-hampshire-18850) (//www.unh.edu/unhtoday/feeds)UNH Today  •  UNH Main Directory: 603-862-1234 Copyright © 2021  •  TTY Users: 7-1-1 or 800-735-2964 (Relay NH) USNH Privacy Policies (http://www.usnh.edu/legal/privacy.shtml)  •  USNH Terms of Use (http://www.usnh.edu/legal/tou.shtml)  •  ADA Acknowledgement(http://www.unh.edu/about/ada.html)

Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns

https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5908&context=news

Researchers Find Mushrooms May Hold Clues to Effect of Carbon Dioxide on Lawns

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

UNH Scholars' Repository