TY - JOUR
T1 - The development of fungal networks in complex environments
AU - Boswell, Graeme P.
AU - Jacobs, Helen
AU - Ritz, Karl
AU - Gadd, Geoffrey M.
AU - Davidson, Fordyce A.
N1 - dc.publisher: Springer-Verlag
PY - 2007
Y1 - 2007
N2 - Fungi are of fundamental importance in terrestrial ecosystems playing important roles in decomposition, nutrient cycling, plant symbiosis and pathogenesis, and have significant potential in several areas of environmental biotechnology such as biocontrol and bioremediation. In all of these contexts, the fungi are growing in environments exhibiting spatio-temporal nutritional and structural heterogeneities. In this work, a discrete mathematical model is derived that allows detailed understanding of how events at the hyphal level are influenced by the nature of various environmental heterogeneities. Mycelial growth and function is simulated in a range of environments including homogeneous conditions, nutritionally-heterogeneous conditions and structurally-heterogeneous environments, the latter emulating porous media such as soils. Our results provide further understanding of the crucial processes involved in fungal growth, nutrient translocation and concomitant functional consequences, e.g. acidification, and have implications for the biotechnological application of fungi.
AB - Fungi are of fundamental importance in terrestrial ecosystems playing important roles in decomposition, nutrient cycling, plant symbiosis and pathogenesis, and have significant potential in several areas of environmental biotechnology such as biocontrol and bioremediation. In all of these contexts, the fungi are growing in environments exhibiting spatio-temporal nutritional and structural heterogeneities. In this work, a discrete mathematical model is derived that allows detailed understanding of how events at the hyphal level are influenced by the nature of various environmental heterogeneities. Mycelial growth and function is simulated in a range of environments including homogeneous conditions, nutritionally-heterogeneous conditions and structurally-heterogeneous environments, the latter emulating porous media such as soils. Our results provide further understanding of the crucial processes involved in fungal growth, nutrient translocation and concomitant functional consequences, e.g. acidification, and have implications for the biotechnological application of fungi.
KW - Hybrid cellular automata
KW - Fungal mycelia
KW - Modelling
U2 - 10.1007/s11538-005-9056-6
DO - 10.1007/s11538-005-9056-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 16841267
SN - 0092-8240
VL - 69
SP - 605
EP - 634
JO - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
JF - Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
IS - 2
ER -