Presenters: Tyler Hacking ; Jonathan Cook
Authors: Tyler Hacking, Jonathan Cook, Clayton Rawson, Erin Riggs, Michael Stevens
Faculty Advisor: Michael Stevens
Institution: Utah Valley University
Morchella (morels) are elusive, short-term seasonal fungi that are highly sought after for their amazing flavor. Morels are easy to identify, but difficult to cultivate. As a result, there is a lot of interest in collecting morels in the field, but there is little research on morel’s biogeochemical associations that could predict where they are most likely to grow. The distribution of Morchella is influenced by biogeochemical conditions such as atmospheric humidity, soil moisture, temperature, carbon, organic matter, and alkalinity, as well as slope, aspect, shade, herbivory, and associations with specific types of plants, including dead or dying tree—because morels are saprophytic. This study focuses on morels found in Payson Canyon, UT, in 2020 and 2021. In 2020, we found over 200 morels at 11 sites. When we returned to these same sites in 2021, we found only 15 morels at only 3 of the sites. At each site, we collected morels (with a U.S. Forest Service collection permit) in both years. The morels collected in 2020 were larger in terms of fresh height, width, and area, and also in terms of dry weight. This decrease in distribution, density, and size of morels can be explained by the decrease in annual average relative humidity between 2020 and 2021. At each morel collection site we also collected soil samples and associated vegetation data using quadrats. INaturalist was used to document our collection sites. Using the data that we’ve gathered, we are in a better position to predict were morels grow and what environmental conditions and ecological interactions favor their distribution, density, and growth.