Hello and welcome back fellow travelers to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms! Today I’ll be finishing up Chapter 2 – The Role of Mushrooms in Nature, which is jam packed with tons of information that I couldn’t completely fit in these blog posts, so make sure to pick up your very own copy right here. So without further ado, let’s begin!
Loss of Species Diversity
Studies have shown a loss of species diversity when we disrupt a natural habitat’s lifecycle. Woodlots are burned and replanted, causing a natural forest to have highly uniform mono-‘crops’ that don’t replenish the ground’s debris for a variety of species of fungi, eventually leading to the loss of a plethora of species that would have otherwise populated the native soil.
At some point, the diversity of life inhabiting the area would fall so low that it may never recover without direct action. We would have to plant trees of various ages, species, canopies, and undergrowth – a task so incredibly difficult that the resources it would take to do so could question the reason why we did it in the first place. We would have to replicate the area’s habitat which evolved for thousands of years.
Toxic Waste
Petroleum-based compounds, polychlorinated biphenols, heavy metals, pesticide-related compounds, and radioactive waste can all be absorbed in mushroom tissue! I wouldn’t eat any of mushrooms grown in these polluted grounds, however, unless maybe I want to grow superpowers!
Mushrooms grown in nuclear waste can even emit radioactivity, setting off Geiger counters and also providing superpowers. Jokes aside, these fungi capable of absorbing toxic chemicals can be a part of the bioremediation process. What’s great about this is that an area can be treated directly at the site without the need of hauling, transportation, and storage of contaminated soils.
One experiment that Stamets has done was testing if Oyster mushrooms was able to degrade petroleum residue on an oil-saturated lot. Spoilers: it did, and the fruitbodies were free of petroleum residue under microscopic analyzation!
Mycofiltration
Mycelium consists of interwoven strands, constructing a large network in a 3D plane that can span up to many acres. If you take a large chunk of this mycelial network, you would have a perfectly designed filtration membrane which can consume a variety of food sources particular to the species.
So if you pass some water through this mycofilter, it can cleanse carbon/nitrogen-rich compounds, bacteria, nematodes, and other microorganisms. Stamets has been experimenting with mycofiltration in farmland by trying to remove biological contaminants from surface water passing directly into watersheds. We’ll go over more in a later chapter, but it’s something definitely worth researching about!
Chapter 2 is Complete
Whoa we finally made it! Writing about this chapter was pretty cool, and there’s also more updated information on these topics as well. If you do some searching, you can find out the updated news on certain things, like Stamets’ update on mycofiltration. Even though we have had decades of research with fungi, it seems like we’re barely scratching the surface, but that means a world of opportunity is open for all of us, so the more the merrier! I hope you all have a great week, and as always, safe journeys!