April 2026 AMS virtual seminar: Solomon Maerowitz-McMahan - on mycorrhizal fungi's post-fire resilience!

We invite you to attend our upcoming AMS virtual seminar. This month, we're delighted to feature Solomon Maerowitz-McMahan, a PhD Candidate at the Western Sydney University.

What underpins mycorrhizal fungal resilience to fire?

Solomon Maerowitz-McMahan

LHawkesbury Institute for the Environment,

Western Sydney University

Thursday, 23 April 2026

12 pm (AEST) / 2 pm (NZST) 

Register here

Summary

Quantifying fire effects on below-ground communities is essential for understanding post-fire ecosystem recovery. Mycorrhizal fungi regulate vegetation dynamics and soil processes, yet their post-fire resilience remains poorly understood across diverse landscapes, as current knowledge relies heavily on single-system studies. Here I describe how fire and ecosystem recovery influence mycorrhizal fungi across 14 Australian forest, woodland and shrubland ecosystems, using burnt and unburnt plots. Through high-throughput sequencing, diversity metrics and joint species distribution modelling, I quantify fire effects on fungal community composition and traits. Community structure shifted significantly post-fire, with increases in richness and a shift toward specific survival strategies: fire favoured stress-tolerant Ascomycota, AM fungi and taxa with below-ground fruiting bodies. Ecosystems with longer expected fire intervals also supported greater fungal occurrence. These findings support a trait-based framework for integrating below-ground symbionts into fire management.

About Solomon

Solomon is a PhD candidate at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, under the supervision of Jeff Powell that submitted his thesis in January and is currently waiting on confirmation . His PhD research examined mycorrhizal fungal responses to fire across diverse ecosystems in Australia. He is broadly interested in understanding how fungi respond to disturbance and in applying this research to inform land management practices.

Check out Solomon's LinkedIn: