New PhytologistVolume 222, Issue 2 p. 668-669 ProfileFree Access Björn Lindahl First published: 20 March 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.15746AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL What inspired your interest in plant science? I was first introduced to botany by my mother, who likes to pick bouquets of wild flowers for the kitchen table, teaching us all the names. During my youth I was engaged in floristics, always bringing my flora to check off new observations. This interest was substantiated and formalized during my biology studies at the University of Gothenburg, where I, much by chance, signed up for a Masters’ project about fungal diversity in rotted wood. I got hooked, and since then I have been devoted to the study of fungal biology, and I am, admittedly, primarily interested in plants as alive or dead hosts to fungi. An excellent Masters’ course in plant ecophysiology ignited my interest in understanding the interplay between organisms and ecosystems. Searching for suitable PhD projects, I stumbled into my PhD supervisor Roger Finlay, again more or less by chance, who introduced me to the exciting world of mycorrhizal research and provided crucial support – scientific as well as financial – during my early research career. Why did you decide to pursue a career in research? I come from a family populated by scientists, and when I realized that my initial ambition to become a musician (violin) was not matched by talent and discipline, research was the obvious choice. I started my university studies with the goal of becoming a scientist in ecology, first thinking about marine biology, but quite early on turning towards plants and terrestrial ecosystems. What motivates you on a day-to-day basis? My main motivation is problem solving and analysis of empirical data. It is the rewarding feeling when new hypotheses find their confirmation in data, or when data lead you to entirely new ideas, that keeps me motivated. Sharing this excitement with colleagues makes it even better. Another drive is the frustration of inconsistencies between scientific field and factions. Research on mycorrhiza is conducted at the interface between microbiology, plant science and ecosystem ecology, and the inconsistent views in the different research communities become obvious. New unifying theories are urgently needed, primarily to advance our common understanding of nature, but also to provide well-justified advice for policy-makers and societal actors. As an Editor, the drive is to keep up high scientific standards and good scholarship – increasingly important in times when fierce competition tends to push researchers towards opportunism. Box 1. Björn Lindahl studied biology at the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) with a Masters’ in Botanical ecology. He obtained his PhD at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Uppsala under the supervision of Roger Finlay, with a thesis about competition between ectomycorrhizal fungi and saprotrophs. Since defending his thesis in 2001, application of high throughput sequencing techniques in the context of fungal ecology has been an important focus. Björn continued working at SLU as a researcher at the Department of Forest Mycology and Plant Pathology, funded mainly by a series of grants from the Swedish Research Council FORMAS, including a major ‘strong research environment’ grant during 2012–2016. In 2014 he moved to the Department of Soil and Environment, where he got tenure as Professor of Soil Biology. He has supervised six PhD students and hosted several post-docs, with projects studying the ecology of soil fungi in forest ecosystems, particularly on mycorrhizal symbiosis and how it relates to decomposition and nutrient cycling. Current projects focus on large-scale field studies of fungal community ecology, meta-transcriptomic studies of fungal traits, as well as ecosystem modelling. Bjorn joined the board of New Phytologist as an Editor in 2015, and before that he served for many years as a member of the Advisory Board. For more information on Björn, visit https://www.slu.se/en/cv/bjorn-lindahl/, or contact him at [email protected] Is there anyone that you consider to be a role model? With a contagious passion for fungi and clever experimentation, Lynne Boddy has been an important role model since I was a PhD student. Together with Alan Rainer, she pioneered fungal ecophysiology by considering fungi as individuals. A focus on the individualistic mycelium is pivotal for understanding fungal behaviour, which, in turn, is essential for understanding how fungi interplay with plants and ecosystems. David Read is another important inspiration, and much of my research has focused on questions presented in his seminal papers on the hitherto overlooked role of mycorrhizas in ecosystems. Tom Bruns and Francis Martin are path-breaking in the application of molecular biology in fungal research, tearing down boundaries between scientific disciplines. Roger Koide is another inspiration with a particularly broad scientific scope from fungal ecophysiology to ecosystem theory. What are your favourite New Phytologist papers of recent years, and why? Four papers stand out for me. Read & Perez-Moreno (2003) – although not entirely recent, this seminal paper drew the map for future research on the roles of mycorrhizas in ecosystems. When the broader community of ecosystem ecologists now, finally, turn their attention to mycorrhizal associations (primarily in the context of global change) this paper is a central piece. The conceptual paper by Koide et al. (2014) outlines how the combination of ecophysiological traits determines how fungal communities respond to, but also create, variation in the environment. An essential inspiration for my research in later years, as it points towards the importance of feed-back mechanisms in the shaping of ecosystems. Näsholm et al. (2013) – first I was annoyed by, and critical towards, the provoking proposal that ectomycorrhizal fungi could be unfavourable rather than beneficial to the nutrition of their plant hosts. Gradually, new results have changed my opinion. The paper by Peay & Bruns (2014) is a brilliant work that shows the importance of dispersal limitation in fungal community assembly. Important theory supported by innovative field experiments. What is your favourite plant, and why? My favourite plant is Scots pine – it seems to be particularly dependent on an intricate symbiosis with ectomycorrhizal fungi and is stunningly beautiful when the stems shine like gold in the Scandinavian evening sun. References Koide RT, Fernandez C, Malcolm G. 2014. Determining place and process: functional traits of ectomycorrhizal fungi that affect both community structure and ecosystem function. New Phytologist 201: 433– 439. Näsholm T, Högberg P, Franklin O, Metcalfe D, Keel SG, Campbell C, Hurry V, Linder S, Högberg MN. 2013. Are ectomycorrhizal fungi alleviating or aggravating nitrogen limitation of tree growth in boreal forests? New Phytologist 198: 214– 221. Peay KG, Bruns TD. 2014. Spore dispersal of basidiomycete fungi at the landscape scale is driven by stochastic and deterministic processes and generates variability in plant–fungal interactions. New Phytologist 204: 180– 191. Read DJ, Perez-Moreno J. 2003. Mycorrhizas and nutrient cycling in ecosystems – a journey towards relevance? New Phytologist 157: 475– 492. Volume222, Issue2April 2019Pages 668-669 ReferencesRelatedInformation