Fungi
Fungal Niches
| "Good" | "Bad" |
|---|
- Decomposition (nutrient cycles)
-
- Edible mushrooms
- micorrhizae
- Lichens & early succession
- Commercial production of:
- antibiotics
- bread
- all alcoholic beverages
- soya sauce
- some cheeses
| - human diseases
- Valley fever
- athlete's foot
- jock itch
- ring worm
- thrush
- similar diseases in animals
- Dry rot of wooden structures
- many plant diseases
- corn smut
- blister rust of pines
- wheat rust
- apple scab
- powdery mildew
|
Many, perhaps most, wood-decomposing fungi trap and digest micro-organisms to supplement a bland diet. Wood typically contains a C:N ratio of about 500:1. A more favorable ratio for protoplasm is 30:1. All sorts of clever mechanisms have evolved: baited nooses, droplets of glue, droplets of poison, spore balls which germinate after ingestion, hypodermics and harpoons.