The Swamp Wallaby 'Wallabia bicolor': a generalist browser as a key mycophagist

Title
The Swamp Wallaby 'Wallabia bicolor': a generalist browser as a key mycophagist
Publication Date
2012
Author(s)
Danks, Melissa
Vernes, Karl
( supervisor )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1635-9950
Email: kvernes@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:kvernes
Andrew, Nigel
( supervisor )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2850-2307
Email: nandrew@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:nandrew
Lebel, Teresa
Type of document
Thesis Doctoral
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
UNE publication id
une:11107
Abstract
Mammal-macrofungal interactions are integral to ecosystem function in landscapes dominated by ectomycorrhizal (EM) plants. EM fungi, critical symbiont's with forest plants, produce sporocarps (fruit bodies) which are an important food resource for a variety of mammals. These mammals in turn play an important dispersal role, particularly for truffle-like (below-ground fruiting or hypogeous basidiomycetes) sporocarpic fungi that do not actively discharge their spores (sequestrate). This thesis examines interactions between truffle-like fungi and a non-specialist, mycophagous marsupial, the swamp wallaby 'Wallabia bicolor'. The availability of truffle-like fungi sporocarps as a food resource for mycophagous (fungus-feeding) mammals, the macrofungal diet of the swamp wallaby, and gut-retention and potential dispersal of macrofungal spores by swamp wallaby are examined.
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