My general research area is conservation ecology and mycology (study of mushrooms). My goal was to see if my predictors could be used in Oxford to estimate where we may have found oyster mushrooms in October of 2023 (genus Pleurotus) by comparing that to recorded observations from citizen science data. I used satellite imagery from over Oxford for images that I could use to estimate NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), or values of greenness. I also used precipitation and temperature values as other predictors to help predict mushroom location. Next, I compared the conditions to locations of reported sightings from iNaturalist and MyCoPortal. I wanted to test if it was possible to do remote sensing on a very small scale when related to mushrooms/fungi. It’s extremely difficult to predict the location of fungi this way, yet many other scientists have been able to do this (somewhat) successfully on a much larger scale. My contribution is changing the study area size and seeing how that affects the prediction accuracy. Temperature and precipitation readings weren’t significant on the given scale, and NDVI was the only predictor that showed any difference across Oxford. Because the single month wasn’t enough information, I expanded the search to try to find trends leading up to the point when the fruiting bodies are visible. I wish to continue working in the conservation field in the future. While I may not specifically continue in mycology, this helps me to better understand one of the many methods that I may use to keep track of the overall health in an ecosystem.
Author(s): Holland Muhlhauser
Advisor(s): Mary Henry, Geography
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