Project Summary

In 2009, the University of Arkansas was awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation for a project entitled “Studies of Fungal Biodiversity in Northern Thailand.” The funding provided by NSF supported a program that provided the opportunity, during each of three summers, for four undergraduate and/or graduate students to spend a month carrying out biodiversity studies of fungi and fungus-like organisms associated with tropical forests in northern Thailand as research projects. Tropical forests are thought to be the terrestrial ecosystems characterized by the highest fungal biodiversity, but a major portion of this biodiversity has yet to be documented. In Thailand, the student participants interacted with scientists and graduate students at Chiang Mai University, Mae Fah Luang University and the Mushroom Research Centre. The international aspects of the program represented an extraordinary training/educational experience for these students, since the interaction with their student counterparts in Thailand involved sharing the same accommodations, joint field work at study sites in northern Thailand and laboratory-based sessions during which they worked together on processing and analyzing samples and data.

This web site is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IAA-0934084.

Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this web site are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.