Ecology of Macrofungi : An Overview

Macrofungi have significant importance in human health, particularly in nutrition, medicine, pharmaceuticals, agriculture and industries. They occupy a variety of ecosystems such as terrestrial (agricultural lands, forests and deserts), freshwater (bogs and marshes) and maritime (mangroves and coastal sand dunes) habitats. Their ecosystem services like nutrition (humans and animals), medicinal pursuits (antibiotics and pharmaceuticals) and bioremediation (degradation of xenobiotics and insect control) potential are dependent on their diversity and ecological conditions. Macrofungal ecology serves as the basis for nutraceutical values, agricultural benefits, plant productivity, environmental protection and industrially valued biocomposites.

This book focuses on various aspects of macrofungal distribution in diverse habitats, participation in organic matter decomposition, ectomycorrhizal associations and participation in biogeochemical cycles. This book reviews the current developments in macrofungal ecology in different habitats and their benefits. Due to the topics dealt with on macrofungal diversity, distribution, dynamics, lifestyles, ecosystem or substrate preferences and ecosystem services, this book is valuable to mycologists, botanists, zoologists, ecologists, foresters, geneticists, agronomists and field biologists.

Kandikere R. Sridhar is an adjunct faculty member at Mangalore University, India. His primary area of study is aquatic fungi in freshwaters and marine waters. He has research collaborations in the USA, Canada, Germany, Switzerland and Portugal. He was president of the Mycological Society of India (2018), a distinguished Asian Mycologist (2015) and one of the world's top 2% scientists in the field of mycology (2019–21). He has published over 500 research articles and edited 10 books. He is on the editorial board of several national and international journals and reviewed over 150 research papers, 25 project proposals and 10 book proposals.

Sunil Kumar Deshmukh is Scientific Advisor to Greenvention Biotech, Uruli-Kanchan, Pune, India and Agpharm Bioinnovations LLP, Patiala, Punjab, India. Being a veteran industrial mycologist, he spent a substantial part of his career in drug discovery at Hoechst Marion Roussel Limited (now Sanofi India Ltd.), Mumbai, and Piramal Enterprises Limited, Mumbai. He has also served TERI-Deaken Nano Biotechnology Centre, TERI, New Delhi, and as an Adjunct Associate Professor at Deakin University, Australia. He has to his credit 8 patents, 145 publications, and 19 books on various aspects of fungi and natural products of microbial origin. He is a president of the Association of Fungal Biologists (AFB) and a past president of the Mycological Society of India (MSI). Dr. Deshmukh is an associate editor of the Frontiers in Microbiology series and the editor of Progress in Mycological Research published by CRC Press. Dr. Deshmukh serves as a referee for more than 20 national and international journals. He has approximately four decades of research experience in getting bioactives from fungi and keratinophilic fungi.