Houston Native Prairies Assoc. of Texas

Join the Houston Chapter of Native Prairies Association of Texas for their Monthly Meeting featuring: “Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, a New Potential Tool in Grassland Restoration” from University of Houston PhD Candidate, Collin Dice.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are fungi that form underground networks across most terrestrial ecosystems and form partnerships with ~80% of known plant species. AMF are important for enhancing native plant growth and diversity in grasslands, especially, but there is strong reason to believe that they are largely absent in restored prairie sites. Contemporary research has shown that AMF can be cultured and reintroduced to North American prairies with great benefits for plant restoration. In this talk, Collin will discuss the challenges, unknowns, and benefits of working with AMF in restoration and its intersection with academic research and field restoration.

Collin is a PhD Candidate from the University of Houston working under Dr. Kerri Crawford. He received a Master’s in Integrative Biology from the Kennesaw State University in 2023 and has worked in Houston since Fall 2023. The focus of his dissertation is plant-microbe interactions in the context of prairie restoration and includes topics on how fire modifies prairie plant diversity, how mycorrhizal fungi can help restore prairies, and how legume-dependent rhizobia are distributed in fragmented prairies.

To understand more about the work Collin and colleagues do, go to:  https://thecrawfordlab.com/.

Also, an article for further reading is “Why, when, and how microbes can benefit ecological restorations: current approaches and future directions” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41664892/), although Collin warns that it is very jargony in some sections.

He is also open to receiving questions before the talk via email if people are interested ([email protected])

Social time starts at 6:30 pm, and the presentation will begin at 7:00 pm. Guests are welcome to bring snacks, but it’s not required.

This meeting is free and open to the public. Please register below:

https://texasprairie.org/event/hnpat-monthly-meeting-may2026/

Please use the following AT Code: AT: Single Presentation; TMN AT Report hours