PYROFUNGI project

The main aim of the project is to identify for the first time the fungal community structure and some of their functions in three main ecosystem stations in Finland. We will connect pyrosequence data to organic nitrogen decomposition from several aspects: spatio-temporal dynamics and disturbances in forest ecosystem (fire and reindeer husbandry). The recently developed, extremely powerful sequencing technology (454 pyrosequencing) allows detailed community analysis which is done using state-of-the-art bioinformatics tools. Microbial community data will be cross-analysed with other, ecosystem-level data obtained from the stations.

Figure 1. The sites where we work are Hyytiälä (SMEAR II), Sodankylä and Värriö (SMEAR I). Hyytiälä belongs to southern, Sodankylä northern and Värriö Arctic boreal pine forest zone. (Figure: icos-infrastructure.fi)