Today on Mushroom Hour we are joined by the incredible myco-maven Mia Maltz PhD. As a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Division of Biomedical Sciences at UC Riverside, her research focuses on fungal communities and functional ecology in novel ecosystems, including pumice plains, drying lakebeds, and the lung mycobiome. Mia studied at the University of California, Irvine where she received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with an emphasis on Ecological Restoration and Fungi. Her dissertation work in Kathleen Treseder’s Lab of Fungi, Ecosystems, and Global Change looked at the effects of habitat fragmentation and ecosystem degradation on fungal community composition and function. For her dissertation research, Mia investigated whether restoration techniques affect fungi and evaluated the efficacy of methods for restoring mycorrhizal fungal function within degraded landscapes. As an ecologist working at the interface of community ecology, biogeography, and mycology, her work broadly focuses on community responses to environmental perturbations, which feedback to influence plant and fungal community structure and ecosystem functioning.    TOPICS COVERED:  Discovering a Passion for Permaculture & Ecological Restoration  The Power of Showing Up & Making Connections  Importance of Surveys Prior to Any Course of Bioremediation  Functions of Different Mycorrhizal Fungi  Roles of Saprobic Fungi & Pathogenic Fungi in Ecological Restoration   Plant and Microbial Communications  Importance of Precautionary Principle  Ecological BioStimulation & BioAugmentation  Founding of CoRenewal & Amazon MycoRenewal Project  Open-Source Research Protocols  Future Economic Significance of Bioremediation  Environmental Justice   Dust Microbiome & Fungal Ecosystems in the Air  Women in Mycology  EPISODE RESOURCES:  Mia Maltz Academic Website: https://sites.uci.edu/maltz/   Mia Maltz Personal Website: http://miamaltz.com/   Mia Maltz IG: https://www.instagram.com/myceliumia/   Mia Maltz Twitter: https://twitter.com/miamaltz   CoRenewal & Amazon MycoRenewal: https://www.amazonmycorenewal.org/   John Todd: https://www.toddecological.com/   Jan Colemeier: https://www.amazon.com/Marine-Mycology-Higher-Jan-Kohlmeyer/dp/1483241882   Treseder Lab: http://faculty.sites.uci.edu/tresederlab/   Dr. Michael Allen: https://ccb.ucr.edu/facilities/lab   Mycological Society of America - Students: https://msastudents.org/   CZNet: https://criticalzone.org/   Protocols.io: https://www.protocols.io/   Phlebia centrifuga (fungi): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlebia_centrifuga