North European Forest Mycologists (NEFOM)
Coordinator: Karina Clemmensen, SLU, karina.clemmensen(a)slu.se
Network partners:
- Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Sweden
- University of Oslo, Norway
- Tartu University, Estonia
- Natural Resources Institute, Finland
- University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Latvian State Forest Research Institute, Latvia
The long-term aim of the NEFOM network is to strengthen the collaboration between research groups working with ecology, evolution and taxonomy of forest fungi and improvement of molecular techniques and data management tools.
Goals for 2024:
There is current public and scientific focus on whether different forms of continuous cover forestry, rather than clear-cut practices, could better preserve the multiple “services” provided by forests in the long-term perspective. Despite the key role of fungi for e.g. nutrient cycling, decomposition and carbon storage, fungal-mediated processes in forests are still poorly known and not considered by forest managers. It is particularly pressing to understand forestry effects on fungi in northern, low-productive forests that have not yet been exposed to clearcutting. These forests may also be particularly vulnerable biodiversity hotspots, and additional management questions relate to the dependency of reindeer herders on the same forests.
During 2024 we plan:
- A scientific meeting focused on development of our common understanding of forestry effects on fungal diversity and fungal-mediated processes particularly in northern, low-productive forests. The meeting will promote discussions among network members at all career stages, invited experts and local stakeholders in the Jokkmokk area.
- Contribution to international scientific meetings and researcher education (activities at IMC12, Maastricht, and ICOM12, Manchester).
- Continued work with open access to forest biodiversity data by building digital services for researchers, stakeholders and the public.
Links:
History
2023
- December 2023: NEFOM was funded with 200 tSEK from SNS for activities during 2024. Karina Clemmensen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will be the network coordinator for this round.
- January 2023: Practical training workshop, in person and online, on eDNA data analysis and publishing in GBIF.
- January 2023: NEFOM scientific meeting in Tartu, in person and on-line. Scientific presentations and discussions between invited guests and network. More than 30 network participants participated in person and 150 persons participated on-line.
2021
- July 2021: a UNITE session at the Japanese mycological society meeting.
- April 2021: Two-day practical PhD course on full data lifecycle and data management practices.
- April 2021: NEFOM network online workshop “back to the roots“ where all partners and invited guests discussed how forest biodiversity Open Data and associated digital services should be build and brought together in a FAIR way. More than 100 participants from 34 institutions.
2020
- May 2020: a half-day UNITE experts meeting and a scientific planning meeting involving NEFOM network participants. On-line.
2019
- December 2019: NEFOM was funded with 182 tSEK from SNS and ForBioeconomy for new activities during 2020. Kessy Aberenkov, Tartu University, will be the new network coordinator!
- January 2019: An intensive two days course on “Identification and publishing HTS/Sanger DNA sequence datasets” in Copenhagen, Denmark.
2018
- September 2018: NEFOM network meeting with the themes “Fungal ecology in a changing climate” at Oulanka research station, NE Finland, 21 participants.
- June 2018: Network members were organizers of the large conference “Ecology of Soil Microorganisms”, Helsinki.
- February 2018: PhD course in “Sample preparation for high-throughput sequencing”, Uppsala, Sweden, 16 students. Arranged in collaboration with SLU research school Organism Biology. (OBS: based partly on 2017 funding)
- February 2018: NEFOM annual network meeting with the themes “Roles of fungi in sustainable forestry” and “Implementing fungal traits to link fungal diversity with ecosystem properties” in Uppsala, Sweden, 55 participants. (OBS: based on 2017 funding)
2017
- December 2017: NEFOM was funded with 203 tSEK for new activities during 2018 under the theme “Opportunities and threads mediated by forest fungi in a changing climate”.
- June 2017: NEFOM Fungal Trait Jamboree, Tartu, Estonia. A workshop dedicated to mapping of traits on the fungal tree of life.
2016
- December 2016: NEFOM was funded with 200 tSEK for new activities during 2017 under the theme “Fungal mediation of sustainable forestry”. Karina Clemmensen, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, will be the new network coordinator.
- September 2016: NEFOM annual meeting, Finse, Norway, 33 participants.
- January 2016: NEFOM annual meeting in Dragør/Copenhagen, Denmark, 22 participants.
2015
- May 2015: Microbial Community Analysis PhD course, Copenhagen, Denmark
- May 2015: Dead Wood Meeting, Lammi, Finland
- March 2015: Scientiific meeting and Bioinformatics PhD course, Oslo, Norway
2014
- December 2014: NEFOM is extended into 2015 with 22.000 EUR from SNS/EFINORD.
- November 2014: NEFOM annual meeting in Riga, Latvia, 40 participants.
- June 2014: PhD laboratory course ‐ “Preparing samples for fungal community sequencing” co-sponsored between Uppsala PhD school, SIU and NEFOM. SLU, Uppsala.
2013
- December 2013: NEFOM is extended into 2014 with 22.000 EUR from SNS/EFINORD.
- November 2013: NEFOM annual conference held in Uppsala, Sweden.
- November 2013: A NEFOM/SLU organized PhD course on “Bioinformatic treatment of microbial sequencing data” Uppsala, Sweden.
- May 2013: Network member Dmitry Schigel received Nordic-Russian higher education funding from SIU, Norway for 2013-2015.
- January 2013: Kick off steering group meeting in Tartu, Estonia.
- January 2013: Network member Urmas Kõljalg organized a UNITE jamboree – a fungal ITS sequence annotation workshop in Tartu, Estonia bringing together networks members as well as many other mycologists internationally.
2012
- November 2012: NEFOM is funded with 20.000 EUR from SNS/EFINORD. Rasmus Kjøller, University of Copenhagen, will coordinate the network.
- June 2012: 1st NEFOM application submitted to SNS/EFINORD.
Back history of network group
- 2008-2011 Norforsk network focused on implementing NGS (454) techniques to study fungal communities in soil, roots and wood. Network was applied for by Rasmus Kjøller and chaired by Håvard Kauserud
- 2002-2007 Norfa/Norforsk network focused on building the UNITE sequence database. Susanne Erland applied for and chaired the network
- 2001: Susanne Erland (Lund) initiated the collaboration between Nordic labs working with molecular ecology of fungi within a meeting in Höör, Sweden