Faculty/Staff Detail

Timothy J. Baroni, Biological Sciences Department, was acknowledged as a consultant for the chapter on “Fungi in the Forest Ecosystem” in Joan Maloof’s recent (2016) book, Nature’s Temples – The Complex World of Old-Growth Forests published by Timber Press of Portland, Ore. Baroni provided Maloof with a 10-page summary of current knowledge of fungal species known from old growth forests of North America and Europe with a comprehensive literature cited section. Also, five of Baroni’s color images of tropical fungi were featured in the 2008 publication Biodiversidad de Puerto Rico, Augustín Stahl, Flora, Hongos, Serie de Historia Natural, on the mushrooms (hongos) of Puerto Rico written by his colleagues, Sharon A. Cantrell, Universidad del Turabo, P.R., and D. Jean Lodge, USDA-Forest Service Northern Research Station, Luquillo, Puerto Rico. Baroni and Lodge were funded by the National Science Foundation from 1996-2001 to perform biodiversity research on Basidiomycetes, large fleshy fungi, in Puerto Rico and the surrounding islands of the Greater Antilles except for Cuba. Cantrell served as the postdoctoral research collaborator on that grant. The chapter is a 46-page summary of the history of research on fungi in Puerto Rico by a host of investigators from around the world, dating back to the 19th century. A summary of these investigations and an overview of the biology of fungi in tropical forest ecosystems is presented, culminating in a list of macrofungi and slime molds documented from Puerto Rico.