Visiting Scientist Seminar – Dr Adam Frew

Abstract

Understanding the factors shaping organism diversity and distribution is a major ecological goal. The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are obligate symbionts of most terrestrial plants, including most crops. The fungi can provide plants with access to resources in the soil, such as phosphorus, and can also enhance plant defences to antagonists such as insect herbivores. AM fungi occupy a dual niche, colonising the soil but also colonising the roots of plants where communities of the fungi can be highly diverse and dynamic. Yet it is still unclear what the underlying mechanisms are which drive the assembly of AM fungal communities in plant roots, and there are potentially conflicting assumptions that have not adequately been challenged by the research community.  These knowledge gaps will take time to address, but here I will discuss two experiments using Sorghum bicolor, where we explored how changes in phosphorus availability, and insect herbivore attack both affect the diversity and composition of root-colonising AM fungi, and what the consequences of this are for the host plants.

About the speaker

Dr Adam Frew is a Lecturer in Mycorrhizal Ecology and ARC DECRA Fellow at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University. Adam completed his PhD at the institute in 2017, after which he worked as a Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University before taking an ongoing position at the University of Southern Queensland in 2019. In 2021 Adam returned to the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment to continue his exploration of mycorrhizal fungal ecology, particularly within agricultural systems.