Professor Martin Bidartondo
Honorary Research Associate
Department
Team
Conservation Genetics and Molecular Ecology
Specialism
Evolution, fungi, molecular ecology, mycorrhizas, symbiosis.
My main area of expertise is plant and fungal molecular ecology, with a focus on the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizas, dominant nutritional symbiosis of terrestrial ecosystems that is increasingly recognized as a primary driver of the global carbon and nitrogen cycles. The systems that I have studied are remarkably diverse and include ectomycorrhizal, arbuscular, fine root endophyte, monotropoid, bryophyte, lycopodioid, ericoid and orchid mycorrhizas.
The basic questions that drive my work relate to the sources and maintenance mechanisms of biodiversity in biotic interactions from trees to liverworts, the environmental drivers of diversity across scales in a changing world, and to the evolution of specificity and its ecological implications. This work is directly relevant to the fields of ecology, evolution, environmental science and conservation.
- PhD, University of California at Berkeley, 2001
- BS Biology, Chemistry minor, magna cum laude, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, 1996
- 2019 Prize for Excellence in Teaching, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Imperial College London
- 2019- Fungal Biology Research Committee and Internal Liaisons Officer, British Mycological Society
- 2018- Chair of the Board of Examiners for Biological Sciences, Imperial College London
- 2017- Editorial Board, Mycorrhiza
- 2017- Fellowships and Honours Committee, Life Sciences, Imperial College London
- 2013- Editorial Board, Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Best performing editor in 2017 and 2018
- 2012- Biological Sciences Admissions Panel, Imperial College London
- 2011- Editorial Board, Fungal Biology
- 2007- Examiner, Postgraduate Biosystematics, Natural History Museum
- 2012-2014 Senior Science Group, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
- 2005-2011 Peer Review College, Natural Environment Research Council
van der Linde, S., Suz, L.M., Orme, C.D.L., [...] & Bidartondo, M.I. (2018)
Environment and host as large-scale controls of ectomycorrhizal fungi.
Nature 558: 243-248.
Rimington, W., Pressel S., Duckett, J.G., Field, K.J., Read, D. & Bidartondo, M.I. (2018).
Ancient plants with ancient fungi: liverworts associate with early-diverging arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 285: 1888.
Bidartondo, M.I., Ellis, C., Kauserud, H., Kennedy, P.G., Lilleskov, E.A., Suz, L.M. & Andrew, C. (2018).
Climate change: Fungal responses and effects.
In K. J. Willis (ed.) State of the World’s Fungi. Report. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Field, K.J., Pressel, S., Duckett, J.G., Rimington, W.R. & Bidartondo, M.I. (2015).
Symbiotic options for the conquest of land.
Trends in Ecology and Evolution 30, 477-486.