Botanists and mycologists have collected and studied fungi from the subantarctic islands since 1840. However, there is still much to learn about the mycoflora of these islands. We were fortunate to have a mycologist, Toni Atkinson, on our research team as part of the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition. Learn more about some of the collections made and the research being done on the fungi of Motu Maha Auckland Islands.
The first collections of subantarctic fungi
As with the plants, Joseph Dalton Hooker and David Lyall, botanists and explorers on the Ross Antarctic Expedition, were the first to collect fungi from Motu Maha Auckland Islands (and Motu Ihupuku Campbell Island) in 1840.
They collected sixteen fungi on that expedition, ten of which were new to science.
Additional collections on Auckland Islands were made by Thomas Kirk (1890), members of the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (1907), Brian Fineran on the joint Dominion Museum/DSIR expedition (1971), Martin Foggo (early 1980s), and Eric McKenzie (2000).
These specimens – many of which are held at the New Zealand Fungarium – revealed several additional fungal species.
What is currently known about the fungi of Motu Maha Auckland Islands?
Summarising all the collections and publications to date, McKenzie and Foggo (1989) listed a total of 49 named species of fungi on the New Zealand subantarctic islands, 41 of which are found on Auckland Islands (including 13 known only from there).
McKenzie (2008) also listed 24 species of rust fungi for New Zealand subantarctic islands, 11 of which have been collected on Auckland Islands.
Compared with vascular plants, the recorded number of subantarctic fungal species is low. This might be due to lack of collection opportunities, or collecting at the wrong time of year. But studies of global patterns of fungal diversity show that climate is important, and areas in the world that are cold or dry – such as deserts and polar regions – generally have lower fungal diversity compared to forest hotspots.
Mycological aims of the 2023 expedition
There is still much to learn about the fungi of Auckland Islands. That’s why having mycologist Toni Atkinson on the research team for the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition was so important.
Toni is an independent mycologist who has many years of experience collecting, identifying and researching fungi, and one of her areas of expertise is wood decay fungi. Toni’s aim was to collect a sample of all the fungi we observed on the island.
Collecting subantarctic fungi
When embarking onto main Auckland Island with the research team, Toni would start searching within the rātā forest for fungi.
Good places to look for fungi are on or under rotting logs, leaf litter, stream banks and other moist places in the forest. We actually did not have to venture very far at all to find fungi of all shapes, sizes and colours, which you can see in the gallery below and also on iNaturalist:
Once Toni found something that she wanted to collect, she would make notes about where and when it was collected, take photos, remove some of the fungal fruiting bodies with her knife, and carefully place them in labelled bags or envelopes to further process when we got back to the ship.
Once back on MV Strannik, plants with rust fungi on were added to the botanists’ plant presses, and all other fungal collections were wrapped in small paper towel packets, labelled, and placed in a food dehydrator. Quick and thorough drying by this means, ensures that their microscopic characters will be preserved, this also gives the best chance of preserving their DNA for later taxonomic work.
Additional close-up photographs were taken (sometimes by me!), and tiny pieces of tissue were squashed onto special paper for later DNA extraction.
Toni made dozens of collections of fungi on main Auckland Island. Working alongside Toni, I tried to document most of these as observations on iNaturalist. In total, I made 130 different iNaturalist observations of fungi, which is nearly 13% of the 1015 total iNaturalist observations I made on the expedition. These can be seen on the map below:
Most of the iNaturalist observations been tentatively identified by expert iNaturalist users cooperj (Jerry Cooper, Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research Senior Researcher – Mycologist) and petragloyn (Petra Gloyn, Secretary of the Fungal Network of New Zealand – FUNNZ).
The current identifications are tentative because it’s necessary to see the material under the microscope, and often to sequence parts of its DNA, to be able to identify fungi correctly – which Toni and her collaborators are planning to do in the near future.
Looking at fungi is a lot of FUN!
The most common mushroom I observed was the austral honey mushroom, Armillaria novae-zelandiae (9 iNaturalist observations).
One of my favourite fungi images from the trip is this one of a species of Coprinopsis:
On a personal note, I found a real enjoyment in spending time with Toni on Motu Maha Auckland Islands, helping her find, photograph and collect fungi. Thank you very much, Toni, for sharing your knowledge, love of fungi and friendship with me during the expedition, and in writing this blog.
Further reading
- Fineran, B. A. (1971). A catalogue of bryophytes, lichens, and fungi collected on the Auckland Islands. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 1(3-4), 215-229.
- McKenzie, E. H. C. (1983). Mycological history and exploration in New Zealand. Archives of natural history, 11(2), 233-247.
- McKenzie, E. H. (2008). Rust fungi in the subantarctic islands of New Zealand. Mycoscience, 49(1), 1-10.
- McKenzie, E. H. C., & Foggo, M. N. (1989). Fungi of New Zealand subantarctic islands. New Zealand journal of botany, 27(1), 91-100.
- Niskanen, Tuula, et al. (2023). Pushing the frontiers of biodiversity research: Unveiling the global diversity, distribution, and conservation of fungi. Annual Review of Environment and Resources 48 (2023): 149-176.
Previous blogs in the series
- Insights, passion, and hope for the future of New Zealand’s subantarctic islands
- What’s it like to be on a subantarctic expedition?
- Sea lions, spiders, slugs and slime molds: Curious critters of Auckland Island
- Scientific collections and observations from the Strannik 2023 Auckland Island Expedition
- Plantago aucklandica is a megaherb!
- The megaherbs of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
- The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: Our favourite places and plants
- Flora of Motu Maha Auckland Islands
- The 2023 Strannik Auckland Island Expedition: An extraordinary botanical voyage to the subantarctic
Coprinopsis is one of the most beautiful things ive ever seen! Not very scientific i know.
Hi Denise, Isn’t it a beautiful fungus, and image? I too like the image because it’s beautiful. There is a lot of beauty in science, and it is good to appreciate the beauty of our natural world. Scientists do this all the time! 🙂 Thanks for taking the time to read the blog and leave a comment! Heidi
Thank you for reading the blog and for your lovely comment. I really enjoyed the challenge of taking photos of tiny fungi!
Very interesting blog, thanks. Beautiful fungal photography.