Firefighting with Mushrooms | Faculty of Biological Sciences

It wasn't until Dustin Lower returned to college after more than fifteen years away that he finally found his place and the green thumb he so sought after.

Lower, who recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in plant biology, is going straight to his doctoral degree in the soils and biogeochemistry program. He plans to continue the research he began as an undergraduate—studying how soil fungi help forests recover after wildfires—and recently received a fellowship from the National Science Foundation’s prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) to fund his studies.

Although he didn't initially plan to pursue a doctorate, Lower says his time at UC Davis gave him the research experience to realize it's something he wants and the confidence that he can do it.

“I had a really rewarding experience here,” Lower said. “I was lucky enough to find a lab that was a great fit for what I wanted to do, and my thesis advisor, Laura Bogar, is phenomenal. She really helped me find a research topic that I cared about and gave me the confidence to pursue a PhD.”

Mushrooms and forest regeneration

When he arrived at Davis in 2022 as a community college transfer student, Lower knew he wanted to study mycorrhizal fungi, the underground fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plants. As luck would have it, Lower’s future advisor Bogar, who studies this very field, joined the plant biology department around the same time.

Seeing Lower's enthusiasm for mycology research, Bogar encouraged him to pursue an independent research project.

“A year after I came back to school, a big fire burned through the whole area and destroyed everything: the ranch was completely destroyed, everything my family owned, family heirlooms, everything was devastated, and I saw the impact that had not only on my family but on the community,” Lower said. “So when my advisor approached me about designing my own project, I knew I wanted to try to connect mycology research to wildfires.”

Previous research has suggested that mycorrhizal fungi may help forests recover after wildfires, but the details are unclear. Lower wanted to determine exactly how and under what circumstances mycorrhizal fungi help seedlings establish after a fire.

With support from the CBS Dean's Circle Summer Research Program, Lower collected soil samples from areas of the Sierra Nevada exposed to varying degrees of fire (controlled fires and wildfires). He then germinated conifer seedlings in the different soil samples under dry and well-hydrated conditions. Six months later, he harvested the roots of the seedlings to examine their fungal associations. Lower is still doing lab work to sequence the DNA of the fungi, but his initial results suggest that seedlings grown in soils from areas with more severe fires have fewer fungal associations, and that seedlings with more fungal associations are better able to withstand drought conditions.

“Dustin has been a great researcher to have in the lab. I feel incredibly lucky that he joined my group as an undergraduate!” Bogar said. “His independence, drive, and innovative problem-solving skills have allowed him to complete an incredible independent project that I strongly suspect will become a peer-reviewed scientific publication in the coming months. I am so excited that he is starting his PhD here next year!”

Ultimately, Lower hopes his research will help design better forest restoration programs. He considers the research he conducted as an undergraduate student a pilot study for his doctorate.

“We don’t know much about how fungal communities and seedlings interact after fires, so this preliminary data will help us assess next steps,” he said. “As part of my PhD, I’d like to find better techniques for restoring forests, because right now we’re just waiting and rushing, letting the ecosystem do its thing, and it takes years, if not decades, for these forests to grow back, and these natural landscapes are very important to the people who live in these areas. It’s hard enough to go through wildfires, but then this beautiful landscape that you’ve chosen to live in is gone, and that can make it much harder to deal with the tragedy of losing everything.”

Sowing (and growing) a love of nature

Lower grew up in Alaska, where he and his entire family spent a lot of time outdoors, enjoying nature and gardening, although Lower says he didn't have a green thumb himself.

“My family has always been passionate about plants and gardening, so I was exposed to being outdoors, identifying mushrooms and working with plants at a very early age,” Lower said. “But ironically, even though my family is great with plants, I’ve always been terrible at growing them. So I never really thought plant biology was something I could do.”

Lower originally entered college straight out of high school to study psychology and then mechanical engineering, but he dropped out when he realized neither field was a good fit for him. His interest in college was rekindled nearly fifteen years later, while caring for his father, a disabled veteran, on a ranch in the Sierra Nevada.

“I spent a lot of time in the forest looking at plants and mushrooms while I was looking after my dad, and I realised that I loved plants and was fascinated by mushrooms,” Lower said. “So when my dad thankfully didn’t need my help anymore, I decided to go back to school.”

A smooth return to school thanks to AvenueB

Having started his studies at UC Davis as a returning student, Lower was a little nervous about fitting in. To help with the transition, he enrolled in AvenueB, a scholarship program in the College of Biological Sciences that supports community college transfer students.

“I was a little nervous because most of the students in my cohort were half my age, and I thought they wouldn’t like me, but I couldn’t have been more wrong,” Lower said. “I’ve made 30 great friends through the program, and the program itself has been instrumental in everything I’ve accomplished here. It’s the best experience I’ve had at UC Davis, and it all comes from the College of Biological Sciences.”