If we talk about mushrooms, the first thing that comes to mind is the autumn forest, a quiet hunt. You can also remember about yeast, blue cheese and penicillin. But few people think about what role fungi play in the ecosystem, why nature needs them. Let's talk about it.
Harm or benefit?
They say that if you put on one side of the scale the benefit that a person receives from these organisms, and on the other - their harm, the bowls will be balanced. Although, arguing about what role mushrooms play in the ecosystem, the question cannot be posed like this. Nature is important and everything is needed.
Mycology, the science of mushrooms, is considered one of the branches of botany. But mushrooms have long been singled out in a separate kingdom. That is, there is a kingdom of plants and separately - a kingdom of mushrooms.
One of the main features is that the structural carbohydrate in the cell wall of these organisms is chitin. It is also an integral part of the outer skeleton of insects, arthropods. Chitin has interesting properties, one of which is the ability to remove harmful substances from the human body, reduce cholesterol. At the same time, because of it, mushrooms are considered heavy food. Children under 6-7 years old are better not to give them, nursing mothers are also better not to eat them. The enzyme system of a child may not cope with such a product.
Why does nature need mushrooms?
One of their main functions is the decomposition, processing of organic residues. As a result of biodegradation of dead plant and animal organisms, carbon and minerals return to the natural cycle.
Mushrooms participate in the processes of soil formation, affect their structure, composition and even temperature conditions. After all, with rotting, the temperature of decaying residues rises. This is well known to gardeners who grow vegetables in warm beds.
Mushrooms in the process of their life create biomass from mycelium and fruiting bodies (what we have known since childhood as fly agarics, russula, birch bark, etc.). They feed not only on humans, but also on insects and various animals.
Mushroom root
The value of fungi in the creation of mycorrhiza is invaluable. It turns out that mushrooms not only destroy trees, but can be useful for them. In nature, the phenomenon of symbiosis is widespread - coexistence beneficial for both organisms.
Mycorrhiza forms an association of filaments of mycelium and tree roots. The fungus receives nutrients from the higher plant in an accessible form and, in turn, helps it to extract water and phosphorus from the soil. The tree actually has extra roots.
Mycorrhiza can be external, surrounding the roots, and can also penetrate inside. An active metabolism takes place between the cells of two organisms. What role do fungi play in the ecosystem in this case? Forest life is simply impossible without them, especially in arid areas.
On the brink of survival
In places where the climate is harsh and vegetation is very scarce, mushrooms form symbiotic communities not with trees, but with algae, known as lichens. They can be found in the tundra and desert, on rocks, buildings, tree bark - where, it would seem, there are no conditions for life. But mushrooms extract water even from air, from dew, and algae converts carbon dioxide in the light into organic food for both.
The habitat of new spaces, the accumulation of organic matter in these places - this is another significance of mushrooms in nature.
Predator mushrooms
According to the lifestyle and method of nutrition, mushrooms are divided into:
- soil saprophytes (champignon, govorushka, morel);
- xylophils that parasitize on living or decompose dead trees (real honey agaric, tinder fungus);
- mycorrhizal, creating a symbiosis with the roots of plants (white, boletus, mushroom).
Mushroom coprophiles live on dung heaps, and carbophiles live on fires.
And some mushrooms are able to "hunt". Amoeba, insects, nematodes can be their prey. The strings of the fungus adhere to the victim, are wrapped in mucus, some are even able to strangle it, then grow inside and feed on it. This is another example of the role mushrooms play in the ecosystem.
Huge and many-sided
The mushroom world visible to humans is a tiny fraction of the existing diversity of their species. Mushrooms, photos and names of which have been familiar since childhood, are fly agaric, white, honey agaric, russula, pale grebe and many others. They are in children's coloring books and cookbooks, reference books on emergency medicine and pharmacology textbooks. Mushrooms for humans can be gourmet food and deadly poison, can heal and cause illness, save and ruin crops, and make housing unsuitable.
The era of antibiotics in medicine began with fungi. Now more and more evidence is being used to increase immunity, to fight against oncological diseases of the varnished tinder, cordyceps, shiitake, etc.
Such they, our visible and invisible, necessary and dangerous neighbors.