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A small group of researchers worldwide is pioneering the study of marine fungi, including MBL Whitman scientist and faculty member of Duke University, who has mentored Lorna-Mitchison Field in this new research area at the MBL over several years. is now at Carnegie Science.

When researchers pulled up the piece of wood—a log from a tree called ubame oak—it had spent 1302 days on the bottom of the ocean. A pretty deep bottom of the ocean too. At this spot near the archipelago called the Nansei Islands northeast of Taiwan, the sea floor lies half a kilometer below the surface, making conditions for life at the log's resting place challenging. That far down, the water gets chilly, there is very little light, and the pressure reaches 742 pounds per square inch.

However, something alive had clearly colonized the wood. After 3 years and 7 months in the water, one side of the log was densely crowded with small black fruiting bodies roughly shaped like miniature figures—or what a layperson would describe as mushrooms.

The Fascinating World of Marine Fungi: Emergence of a New Research Field | BioScience