The fascinating world of marine fungi: Emergence of a new research field.

MARINE fungi; BOTANY; MANGROVE plants; FRUITING bodies (Fungi); BIOENGINEERING; MARINE biology; RAIN forests; NUTRIENT cycles

Fungi in general and aquatic fungi in particular are also being overlooked when it comes to conservation. Considering that microbes make up around 90% of the weight of living organisms in the sea and that fungi - by some estimates - might outweigh the biomass of bacteria in at least some locations, it is likely that we have discovered less than 5% of marine fungi in existence so far. Amend, the researcher at the University of Hawai'i, also has his eyes on marine fungi when it comes to plastics such as polyurethane that are now part of the "plastisphere", the new and growing habitat in the ocean. When researchers pulled up the piece of wood - a log from a tree called ubame oak - it had spent 1302 days on the bottom of the ocean. [Extracted from the article]

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