Customer Reviews

Biodiversity of Fungi: Inventory and Monitoring Methods

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If you are looking for a nice mycological encyclopedia that deals with methods and protocols, "Biodiversity of Fungi: inventory and monitoring methods" organized by Foster and co-authors is the book of choice! It has several basic and more advanced methods of isolation that cover the different fungal groups. Despite of that the book provides introductory chapters on how to proceed in fungal ecological surveys and to analyze the results as well as a minor chapter of fungal phylogenetics. As a matter of fact, big projects like this lack more details when dealing with each fungal group but still is a major source of information that any mycologist or mycology student interested in ecological aspects of fungi should have in their private libraries.

The reference included chapters on most aspects of mycology, with an intended focus on biodiversity. Two approaches to understanding fungi from unique environments were completely ignored: aeromycology and fossil fungi. There is a large body of literature from research in both these areas. The fossil fungi particularly need a better correlation with contemporary species and a discussion of their diversity would have been an asset to the theme of this compilation.