We have a big area of Rainforest where we can see a big variety of fungos growing around. I'd like to catalog them using a simple methodology. We do not have equipment for that despite a magnifying glass. We do have volunteers who can do the periodic work. We believe we can provide date for science.
This will be a lot of work. First of all, can your volunteers work on a regular schedule? It would be nice to just have them take walks and collect fungi, but it would be better if you were able to observe the emergence of fungi on a regular schedule from delimited permanent plots you've set up.
Then, do you have good cameras? I think the best way for you to categorize fungi when you don't have access to a microscope is to very carefully take photos following a fixed protocol. For example, you might want to take pictures of the fungus in situ, then carefully pull it up and get pictures of the stipe, the cap, the gills, etc. Then you would make cross-sections of these features so the arrangement of the inner tissue would be visible. Then you would want to make a spore print and do chemical tests of the tissues using iodine, KOH, etc. You would then want to take the sample and dry it so you can store it. That way, the samples could then be examined by an expert later and perhaps have their DNA analyzed. Nowadays DNA analysis is critical to identifying fungi.
Not all fungi are big, so you might want to take pictures of small ones (do you have a camera with a lens that can take pictures of very small objects?) and then dry them. Labeling your samples is very important: you will need to record the date, the location (do you have a GPS device?) and the substrate. You might find hundreds of small specimens in a day; can you handle that? Small fungi are just as scientifically valuable as large ones and to record the real diversity in a rain forest, you can't just select the big pretty fungi. Imagine if a tiny white one turns out to have chemicals in it that cure cancer: you wouldn't want to have ignored that one just because it was small and plain!
If you are absolutely serious about this, and can put in that kind of effort, you could get in touch with real tropical mycologists (I'm just a plant pathologist!) and set up a collaboration. If all of this is too much, figure out what you can do and do the best you can. Good luck!
Thanks Nina!
I expected a lot of work indeed! We do can work on regular schedule, have good but not excellent cameras. Anyway I appreciate very much the orientation of what and how picture them! We do have GPS... So maybe I should consider starting with the macro ones. And yes! I'm trying to be in touch with some tropical mycologists.
Thanks so much!!!
I started out as a taxonomic mycologist, and used to spend a lot of time in swamps and bogs. It will be tremendously rewarding work for your volunteers.
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