Roy Watling

Roy Watling MBE, PhD., DSc, FRSE, F.I.Biol., C.Biol., FLS (born 1938) is a Scottish mycologist who has made significant contributions to the study of fungi both in the identification of new species and correct taxonomic placement, as well as in fungal ecology.

Roy Watling
Born	Roy Watling 1938 (age 85–86) Scotland
Education	MBE, PhD., DSc, FRSE, F.I.Biol., C.Biol., FLS
Occupation	mycologist
Employer(s)	Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Ramkhamhaeng University (Bangkok, Thailand)
Awards	Patrick Neill Medal Royal Society for the Protection of Birds Nature Award

Biography

Dr Watling was the Head of Mycology and Plant Pathology and Acting Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He was a visiting professor at Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, Thailand. He was awarded a Patrick Neill Medal and an Outstanding Contribution to Nature Award from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.^[1] He is a member of the German, American, and Dutch Mycological Societies and the North American Mycological Association. Since his retirement, he has led fungal forays and education events for youth in and around Edinburgh.^[2] He was president of the Botanical Society of Scotland from 1984 to 1986.^[3] In 1997, Watling received the honour of Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to science.^[4] In 1998, the Royal Society of Edinburgh awarded him the Neill Medal, a triennial distinction recognising outstanding work by a Scottish naturalist.^[5]

While much of his work has been identifying and expanding knowledge of fungi in the tropics, Watling has also done extensive research in much of the UK and North America. He is listed as an author of over 500 fungal taxa in the nomenclatural database MycoBank.^[6] An example of Watling's work in Scotland can be seen in a 1983 study detailing the fungal populations of the Hebrides; this study highlights how little is known of fungi in some isolated locations in the United Kingdom.^[7] Working with R. W. G. Dennis, Watling published several papers adding to the 1,787 fungi on the Island of Mull in the Inner Hebrides.^[8] The unique geographic composition of these islands and limited human influence make the Hebrides an exciting location for fungal diversity.^[9] His work in the Shetland Islands, Hebrides, and northern Scotland provides insight into distribution patterns of Russula, Laccaria, Inocybe, Cortinarius, Amanita nivalis, Omphalina Alpina and Omphalina hudsoniana (as well as other taxa) about climatic and geographical variance.^[10] This information was further updated in 1994 with his publication of The Fungus Flora of Shetland and in 1999 publication of The Fungus Flora of Orkney. Further research into the alpine, arctic relationship with fungi can be seen in his study of seven taxa of coprophilous fungi in the Falkland Islands.^[11]

Watling has written books ranging from high specificity on topics like Boletus diversity to entry-level mycology books. He was one of the editors of the first compendium of Basidiomycota of the British Isles.^[12] His work has also had broader global impacts outside of the fungi kingdom. His work focusing on chloromethane production provides evidence of the role of white-rot fungi in the tropical rainforest methane cycle. This is especially critical with the broader global warming and deforestation impacts of the tropics.^[13] This research was further developed by a study published in 2005 that found that fungi are one of the largest sources of atmospheric chloromethane production. This information also suggests the more significant impact of white-rot wood decay fungi in developing a microbial soil sink for chloromethane.^[14]

Watling has also worked on developmental studies of fungal fruit bodies.^[15] His work has contributed to polymorphism studies with Psilocybe merdaria and dimorphism in Entoloma abortivum.^[16] Watling was also the first to correctly identify and describe a parasitic relationship between Entoloma and Armillaria in their carpophoroid form. While the debate is still on the parasitic relationship of whom parasitises whom, Watling's discovery has shed light on a new relationship between fungi on an important edible mushroom. Watling has studied the genus Armillaria. A compendium was published in 1982,^[17] and studies of Armillaria in Australia and the United States.^[18][19]

Royal Botanical Gardens Edinburgh

As head of mycology at the RBGE, he staged fungal forays at Dawyck Botanic Garden.^[20] At the RBGE, he established further knowledge of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) relations to specific trees and their distributions across the UK. He contributed Scottish material to a diverse range of fungal collections in the RBGE herbarium.^[21]

One of his publications focused on the Sitka Spruce, a forestry tree species introduced to Scotland,^[22] as well as macrofungi in the oak woods,^[23] birch woods,^[24] and willows of the UK.^[25] This information and his paper published in 1981 on macromycetes and development in higher plant communities illustrate the uniquely important role ECM fungi have in the UK.^[26][27]

His work has also extended to studying ECM fungi in Kashmir ^[28] and the Guinea-Congo.^[29] While Watling is semi-retired, he is still called upon regularly for mushroom identification and leads many educational forays. He helped to identify a new species in Thailand that was recently named in honour of the Thai Queen Sirikit in 2014.^[30] Fungus species named after Watling include Amanita watlingii,^[31] Conocybe watlingii,^[32] and Ramaria watlingii.^[33]

He helped celebrate Beatrix Potter's work as a mycologist and scientific artist.^[34]

References

1. Fyall, Jenny (2 March 2012). "Scotland honours the champions of wildlife conservation with pride". The Scotsman. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
2. "Roy Watling - Scottish Fungi". sites.google.com.
3. "Congratulations to Professor Roy Watling". Botanical Society of Scotland. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
4. "New Year Honours List". Times Higher Education. 6 January 1997. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
5. "Neill Medal". Royal Society of Edinburgh. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
6. "Fungal Databases: Nomenclature and Species Banks (search for "Watling" in authors field)". International Mycological Association. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
7. Watling, Roy (1983). "Additions to the fungus flora of the Hebrides". Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. 44 (2). Taylor & Francis Group: 127–138. doi:10.1080/03746608308685379.
8. Dennis, R. W. G.; Watling, Roy (1983). "Fungi in the Inner Hebrides". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences. 83: 415–429. doi:10.1017/S0269727000013518.
9. wildmull.com/page.aspx?Fungi
10. Watling, Roy. "Larger arctic-alpine fungi in Scotland." Arctic and Alpine mycology II. Springer US, 1987. 17–45.
11. Watling, Roy; Richardson, Michael J. (2010). "Coprophilous fungi of the Falkland Islands". Edinburgh Journal of Botany. 67 (3): 399–423. doi:10.1017/S0960428610000156.
12. "WorldCat Identities Watling, Roy". WorldCat. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
13. Watling, Roy; Harper, David B. (1998). "Chloromethane production by wood-rotting fungi and an estimate of the global flux to the atmosphere". Mycological Research. 102 (7): 769–787. doi:10.1017/s0953756298006157.
14. Keppler, F.; et al. (2005). "New insight into the atmospheric chloromethane budget gained using stable carbon isotope ratios" (PDF). Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. 5 (9): 2403–2411. Bibcode:2005ACP.....5.2403K. doi:10.5194/acp-5-2403-2005.
15. Watling, Roy (1971). "Polymorphism in Psilocybe merdaria". New Phytologist. 70 (2): 307–326. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1971.tb02530.x.
16. Watling, R (1974). "Dimorphism in Entoloma abortivum". Bull Soc Linn Lyon, Num Spec. 43: 449–470.
17. Watling, R.; Kile, G. A.; Gregory, Norma M. (1982). "The genus Armillaria -nomenclature, typification, the identity of Armillaria mellea and species differentiation". Transactions of the British Mycological Society. 78 (2): 271–285. doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(82)80011-9.
18. Kile, G. A.; Watling, R. (1983). "Armillaria species from south-eastern Australia". Transactions of the British Mycological Society. 81 (1): 129–140. doi:10.1016/S0007-1536(83)80212-5.
19. Watling, Roy, Glen A. Kile, and Harold H. Burdsall Jr. "Nomenclature, taxonomy, and identification." Armillaria root disease. USDA Forest Service, Washington DC (1991): 1-9.
20. "Friend or foe? Unmasking fascinating fungi at Dawyck". Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
21. "Selected collections at RBGE (E)". Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
22. Alexander, Ian; Watling, Roy (1987). "Macrofungi of Sitka spruce in Scotland". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences. 93 (1–2): 107–115. doi:10.1017/S0269727000006321.
23. Watling, Roy (2005). "The fungi of Scottish Western oakwoods". Botanical Journal of Scotland. 57 (1–2): 155–165. doi:10.1080/03746600508685094. S2CID 85219916.
24. Watling, Roy (1984). "Macrofungi of birchwoods". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences. 85 (1–2): 129–140. doi:10.1017/S0269727000003948.
25. Watling, Roy (1992). "Macrofungi associated with British willows". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences. 98: 135–147. doi:10.1017/S0269727000007508.
26. Watling, 1981 Relationships between macromycetes and the development of higher plant communities D.T. Wicklow, G.C. Carroll (Eds.), The Fungal Community: its Role in the Ecosystem, Marcel Dekker, New York (1981), pp. 427–458
27. Krivtsov, V.; Illian, V.; Liddell, K.; Garside, A.; Bezginova, T.; Salmond, R.; Thompson, J.; Griffiths, B.; Staines, H.J.; Watling, R.; Brendler, A.; Palfreyman, J.W. (2003). "Some aspects of complex interactions involving soil mesofauna: analysis of the results from a Scottish woodland". Ecological Modelling. 170 (2): 441–452. doi:10.1016/S0304-3800(03)00244-8.
28. Watling, R.; Abraham, S. P. (1992). "Ectomycorrhizal fungi of Kashmir forests". Mycorrhiza. 2 (2): 81–87. doi:10.1007/BF00203254. S2CID 35845676.
29. Buyck, Bart; Thoen, Daniel; Watling, Roy (1996). "Ectomycorrhizal fungi of the Guinea–Congo region". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Section B: Biological Sciences. 104: 313–333. doi:10.1017/S0269727000006175.
30. Phosri, Cherdchai; Watling, Roy; Suwannasai, Nuttika; Wilson, Andrew; Martín, María P. (2014). "A New Representative of Star-Shaped Fungi: Astraeus sirindhorniae sp. nov. from Thailand". PLOS ONE. 9 (5): e71160. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...971160P. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0071160. PMC 4012956. PMID 24806455.
31. Kumar, A.; Bhatt, R.P.; Lakhanpal, T.N. (1990). The Amanitaceae of India (3 ed.). Dehra Dun. p. 92. ISBN 978-8121100465.
32. Hausknecht A. (1996). "Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Bolbitiaceae 3. Europäische Conocybe-Arten mit wurzelndem oder tief im Substrat eingesenktem Stiel". Österreichische Zeitschrift für Pilzkunde (in German). 5: 161–202 (see p. 193).
33. Petersen, R.H.; Watling, R. (1989). "New or interesting Ramaria taxa from Australia". Notes from the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh. 46 (1): 141–59.
34. . The Linnean Society. Archived from the original on 3 January 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
35. International Plant Names Index.  Watling.