Tom Horton

Associate Professor, Mycorrhizal Ecology SUNY-College of Environmental Science and Forestry Department of Environmental and Forest Biology 1 Forestry Drive Syracuse, NY 13210 Office phone: 315-470-6794 Fax: 315-470-6934 trhorton@esf.edu Office: 350 Illick Hall Lab: 447 Illick Hall

NEW SEMINAR SERIES: Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution Research Seminars is a new monthly seminar series designed to bring researchers (faculty/postdocs/grads) from SU and ESF together. Click B.E.E.R.S. for meeting place, times and schedule. All meetings are held at the new SU Life Sciences Building room 106 and will begin at 4:00 pm.

Next Seminar, November 17: Dawn Higginson (SU) "Is breaking up hard to do? Sperm pair dissociation in a predaceous diving beetle"

Click here to learn about my Research interests, Teaching, Students and visitors, or Publication list

Students interested in joining the lab should contact me via email at: trhorton@esf.edu

Some useful links

My research interests:

My research is focused on ectomycorrhizal fungi and their influences on plant community dynamics. All of my research is applicable to various issues in conservation biology. It is amazing to me that most textbooks barely mention mycorrhizal symbioses. Indeed, many ecologists still consider mutualisms a sort of special case phenomenon (acacia ants, orchid moths). Part of this bias comes from the fact that models of mutualisms predict that they are unstable and therefore should not be common. But four examples of very stable mutualisms should put that misunderstanding to rest: chloroplasts in plant cells, mitochondria in eukaryotic cells, N-fixing bacteria in legumes and other plant roots, and of course lichens. Because around 80-90% of all plants associate with mycorrhizal fungi that are typically mutualistic, mycorrhizal mutualisms are a fifth case demonstrating the commonality of mutualisms in nature. Is the mycorrhizal symbiosis stable? Mycorrhizal fungi have been associated with plants for over 400 million years, coinciding with the first colonization of land by plants. The fact that mycorrhizal fungi are primarily below ground, cryptic and essentially considered microbial, plant and ecosystem ecologists have largely black-boxed their role in plant communities. A second focus of mine is the development and use of PCR-based techniques to identify fungi directly from mycorrhizal root tips and soil hyphae, thus giving us an ability to peek into the black-box (see Horton and Bruns, 2001). Being a mycorrhizal ecologist that uses molecular techniques keeps me engaged in mycology, plant ecology and molecular ecology. At the risk of pigeonholing the breadth of their work, my graduate students have investigated or are investigating the role of mycorrhizal fungi in plant community dynamics (Sara Ashkannejhad, Tera Galante, Mikey O'Brien), restoration ecology (Kris Dulmer, Chris Hazard, Erin Page), and ecosystem dynamics (Joe Vineis).

Teaching:

• EFB 428/628, Mycorrhizal Ecology. Spring.
  • Course syllabus

• EFB 497/797, Evolution in the High School.
  Sorry, not this semester

• Horton TR, Arnold AE, Bruns TD (2008) FESIN workshops at ESA - the mycelial network grows. Mycorrhiza (Online First)
• Horton TR, van der Heijden M (2008) The role of symbioses in seedling establishment and survival. In: Seedling Ecology and Evolution. Leck M, Parker VT, Simpson B, Eds. Cambridge University Press. (It's out!! I got my copy in the mail on 9/10/08)
• Bidartondo et al. (2008) Preserving accuracy in GenBank. Science 319: 1616 (This is a letter signed by many.)
• Hobbie EA, Horton TR (2007) Evidence that saprotrophic fungi mobilise carbon and mycorrhizal fungi mobilise nitrogen during litter decomposition. New Phytologist 173: 447–449. This is an invited comment on Lindahl et al. (2007) Spatial separation of litter decomposition and mycorrhizal nitrogen uptake in a boreal forest. New Phytologist 173: 611–620.
• Horton TR (2006) The number of nuclei in basidiospores of 63 species of ectomycorrhizal Homobasidiomycetes. Mycologia 98: 233-238.
• Ashkannejhad S, Horton TR (2006) Ectomycorrhizal ecology under primary succession on coastal sand dunes: interactions involving Pinus contorta, suilloid fungi and deer. New Phytologist 169:345-354.
• Becerra A, Zak MR, Horton TR, Micolini J (2005) Ectomycorrhizal and arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization of Alnus acuminata from Calilegua National Park (Argentina). Mycorrhiza 15: 525-531.
• Horton TR, Molina R, Hood K (2005) Douglas-fir ectomycorrhizae in 40 and 400 year-old stands: mycobiont availability to late successional western hemlock. Mycorrhiza 15: 393-403.
• Fujimura KE, Smith JE, Horton TR, Weber NS, Spatafora JW (2005) Pezizalean mycorrhizas and sporocarps in ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) after prescribed fires in eastern Oregon, USA. Mycorrhiza 15: 79-86.
• Nouhra ER, Horton TR, Cazares E, Castellano M (2005) Morphological and molecular characterization of selected Ramaria mycorrhizae. Mycorrhiza 15: 55-59.
• Bruns TD, Baar J, Grogan P, Horton TR, Kretzer A, Redecker D, Tan J, Taylor DL (2005) Natural history and community dynamics of ectomycorrhizal fungi following the Mt. Vision fire. pp33-40, In Lessens Learned from the October 1995 Mt. Vision Fire; CD ROM published by Points Reyes National Seashore.
• Potente J, Horton T (2004) Tale of a ragged fringe. Long Island Botanical Society Quarterly Newsletter, 13(4): 27-29.
• Lilleskov EA, Bruns TD, Horton TR, Taylor DL, Grogan P (2004) Detection of forest stand-level spatial structure in ectomycorrhizal fungal communities. - FEMS Microbiology Ecology 49: 319-332.
• Horton TR (2002) Molecular approaches to ectomycorrhizal diversity studies: variation in ITS at a local scale . Plant and Soil 244: 29-39.
• Bruns TD, Kretzer AM, Horton TR, Stendel E"Acey-Ducey", Bidartondo MI, Szaro TM. 2002. Current investigations of fungal ectomycorrhizal communities in the Sierra Nevada forest. USDA Forest Service Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR: pp. 83-89.
• Becerra A, Daniele G, Domínguez L, Nouhra E and Horton T. 2002. Ectomycorrhizae between Alnus acuminata H.B.K. and Naucoria escharoides (Fr.:Fr.) Kummer from Argentina. Mycorrhiza: 12:61-66.
• Lilleskov EA, Fahey TJ, Horton TR, Lovett GM (2002) Nitrogen deposition and ectomycorrhizal fungal communities: a belowground view from Alaska. Ecology 83: 104 - 115.
• Horton, Thomas R. & Bruns, Thomas D. 2001.  The molecular revolution in ectomycorrhizal ecology: peeking into the black-box. Molecular Ecology 10 (8): 1855-1871.
• Chapela IH, Osher LJ, Horton TR, Henn MR (2001) Ectomycorrhizal fungi introduced with exotic pine plantations induce soil carbon depletion. Soils Biology and Biochemistry 33: 1733-1740.
• Baar J, Horton TR, Kretzer A, Bruns TD (1999) Mycorrhizal recolonization of Pinus muricata from resistant propagules after a stand-replacing wildfire . New Phytologist 143: 409-418.
• Allen MF, Trappe JM, Horton TR (1999) NATS truffle and truffle-like fungi 8: Rhizopogon mengeisp. nov. (Boletaceae, Basidiomycota). Mycotaxon 70: 149-152.
• Stendell ER, Horton TR, Bruns TD (1999) Early effects of prescribed fire on the structure of the ectomycorrhizal fungal community in a Sierra Nevada ponderosa pine forest. Mycological Research 103: 1353-1359.
• Horton TR, Bruns TD, and Parker TV (1999) Ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with Arctostaphylos contribute to Pseudotsuga menziesii establishment. Canadian Journal of Botany 77: 93-102.
• Horton TR, Bruns TD (1998) Multiple host fungi are the most frequent and abundant ectomycorrhizal types in a mixed stand of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii D. Don) and bishop pine (Pinus muricata D. Don). New Phytologist 139(2): 331-339.
• Horton TR, Cázares E, Bruns TD (1998) Ectomycorrhizal, vesicular-arbuscular and dark septate fungal colonization of bishop pine (Pinus muricata) seedlings in the first five months of growth after wildfire. Mycorrhiza 8:11-18.
• Bruns TD, Szaro TM, Gardes M, Cullings KW, Pan JJ, Taylor DL, Horton TR, Kretzer A, Garbelotto M, Li Y. (1998) A sequence database for the identification of ectomycorrhizal Basidiomycetes by phylogenetic analysis.   Molecular Ecology, v.7, n.3, (1998): 257-272.

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Images on this webpage taken by Dave Pilz, Annette Kretzer, or Tom Horton. General design by Tim Szaro.