1 PROJECT DESCRIPTION Results of Prior NSF Support

Roy Halling has served as a PI on several prior NSF grants, the most recent of which is “Macrofungi of Costa Rica”, a collaborative project between REH and G. M. Mueller (DEB 9972018, $165,800, Sept. 1999-Aug. 2003). This work began as a biotic survey of “The Agaricales of Costa Rican Quercus Forests” funded by NSF and U.S.A.I.D. (DEB 9300798 with subcontract to NYBG, $62,065, May 1993-April 1997). We and our collaborators have been documenting the diversity and ecology of boletes and other macrofungi associated with Neotropical oak forests. The project has focussed on six conservation areas in Costa Rica: Guanacaste, Tempisque, Arenal, Amistad Pacifico, Amistad Caribe, and Osa. We were primarily responsible for the initiation of Costa Rica’s National Fungal Inventory. Collaborators in Costa Rica include the University of Costa Rica Biology Department and INBio (Costa Rica's National Institute of Biodiversity), which were targeted for infrastructure building and enhancement. Selected publications that are directly related to the proposed research are listed below. For a full list see: http://www.nybg.org/bsci/res/hall/sumry2.html. 1. Halling, R. E. 1996 (1997). Boletaceae (Agaricales): Latitudinal biodiversity and biological interactions in Costa Rica and Colombia. Rev. Biol. Trop. 44 (suppl. 4): 111-114. 2. Halling, R. E. and G. M. Mueller. 1999. New boletes from Costa Rica. Mycologia 91: 893-899. 3. Halling, R. E. 1999. New Leccinums from Costa Rica. Kew Bull. 54: 747-753. 4. Halling, R. E. and G. M. Mueller. 2001. Tylopilus bulbosus sp. nov. from Costa Rica. Harvard Papers in Botany 6: 109-112. 5. Halling, R. E. and G. M. Mueller. 2002. Agarics and boletes of Neotropical oakwoods. In: Tropical Mycology, Watling, R., J. C. Frankland, A. M. Ainsworth, S. Isaac, and C. H. Robinson, eds. CABI Publishing, UK, p. 1-10. 6. Amtoft, A., R. E. Halling, and G. M. Mueller. 2003. Tylopilus alkalixanthus, a new species of Boletaceae from Costa Rica. Brittonia (in press). 7. Halling, R. E. and G. M. Mueller. 2003. Leccinum (Boletaceae) in Costa Rica. Mycologia (in press). 8. Halling, R. E. and G. M. Mueller. 2003. Mushrooms of the Central Talamancas, Costa Rica. New York Botanical Garden Press (in revision), approx. 200 p. The projects supported one post-doc (Ana E. Franco M. from Colombia), two Costa Rican undergraduates (Milagro Mata, Loengrin Umaña), one Costa Rican Master’s candidate (Juan Luís Mata), two REU’s (Anja Amtoft, Tracy Scanlan), and provided support for a weeklong workshop on Basidiomycetes held in Costa Rica and attended by 18 students from throughout Central America. A web site describes the work in progress (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/res/hall) and provides a link to searchable databases. Presently, 7149 records of Boletaceae (sensu stricto) are searchable (http://www.nybg.org/bsci/hcol/fung/Boletaceae.html) based on all specimens held in the New York Botanical Garden Mycology Herbarium.