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Gerhard Walter Rambold (born 1956) is a German mycologist and lichenologist whose research covers the ecological, morphological, and taxonomic roles of fungal communities, particularly focusing on lichenized and non-lichenized fungi. He is professor emeritus at the University of Bayreuth and at the International Training Center for Environmental Research (ITCER).

Rambold's work contributes to the understanding of fungal symbioses and interactions in various ecosystems, with numerous taxon names authored. The genus Ramboldia, circumscribed in 1994 by Gintaras Kantvilas and John Alan Elix, was named in his honor.

Rambold is the author of Bibliotheca Lichenologica Volumes 34 (1989) and 48 (1992), co-written with Dagmar Triebel, and has written or co-written more than 100 papers on mycology, lichenology, and ecoinformatics. He is the Section Editor for Mycological Progress and MycoKeys.

Early life and education

Rambold pursued an academic career in biology, focusing on taxonomy and biological informatics, earning his Diploma in Biology from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) in 1983, followed by his PhD in Systematic Botany in 1989. In 1993, he received his Habilitation in Systematic Botany, extending his research into fungal systematics and ecology.

Career

Rambold's PhD thesis on Australian lichens laid the foundation for his contributions to taxonomy and ecology. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with scientists, including J.A. Elix, G. Kantvilas, Thomas Hawkes Nash III, and Thorsten H. Lumbsch.

Rambold began his academic career as a research associate at the Botanische Staatssammlung München from 1984 to 1989, and continued in this role while working at LMU Munich from 1990 to 1995. Between 1995 and 1998, he held a Heisenberg Fellowship at LMU Munich. From 1999 to 2022, he served as a University Professor for Mycology at the University of Bayreuth, during which time he was dean of study affairs from 2006 to 2009 and head of the Central Laboratory for DNA Analytics and Ecoinformatics from 2006 to 2015. In addition, he held an appointment as the head of the Department of Mycology there and continued his work at the ITCER as an emeritus in 2022.

Research contributions

Lichenized and non-lichenized fungi

Rambold's career began with a focus on lichenized fungi, examining their taxonomy, morphology, and ecological roles. His early research on Australian lichens resulted in his PhD thesis, "A Monograph of the Saxicolous Lecideoid Lichens of Australia (excl. Tasmania)," completed in 1989 under Hannes Hertel. Additionally, his 1992 publication on Inter-lecanoralean associations has contributed to the concept of lichens as multi-biont systems, supporting the broader view of lichens as ecological communities with diverse interactions.

Throughout his career, Rambold has described multiple new species, adding to the understanding of lichen diversity and the relationships that define lichenized fungi. From 1982 to 2006, he primarily gathered both lichenized and non-lichenized, including extremophilic ascomycetes in regions such as Central Europe, the Canary Islands, Australia, Southern Africa, and the United States (specifically Arizona). His research on lichen metabolites has also shown how these compounds influence the global distribution of lichens, affecting their ecological adaptability and roles.

Fungal communities and mycobiomes

Building on his early taxonomic work, Rambold expanded his studies to fungal communities or mycobiomes, exploring fungi associated with plants, invertebrates, soil, and microplastics. His research has highlighted the role of microplastics in accumulating fungal pathogens and the ways in which fungal communities colonize these synthetic substrates, which have been featured in Phys.org and SciDev.Net. With his collaborators, he showed how polymer properties of microplastics shape microbial community assembly and succession, offering insights into how environmental pollutants influence ecosystem dynamics.

Contributions to biological informatics

Rambold has made contributions to biological informatics as well, co-founding the Diversity Workbench with Triebel and Gregor Hagedorn. He was involved in a collaborative project that led to the launch of DiversityNaviKey (DNK), a diagnostic tool for biology and related sciences built on the Diversity Workbench database, enabling interactive identification of organisms and other research entities based on predefined properties. Together with Reinhard Agerer, he also developed DEEMY, a resource for studying mycorrhizal fungi. Furthermore, he is the lead editor of the LIAS (Lichen Information System) which provides an accessible resource for lichenology, with periodic updates reflecting new data and insights.

Selected publications

• Rambold, G., Bensch, K., Kirk, P. M., Yao, Y.-J., Robert, V., Triebel, D. (2018). Proposal to recommend the use of an identifier as an alternative to the citation of the authors of fungal names. IMA Fungus, 9(1), i–vii.
• Peršoh, D., Stolle, N., Brachmann, A., Begerow, D., Rambold, G. (2018). Fungal guilds are evenly distributed along a vertical spruce forest soil profile while individual fungi show pronounced niche partitioning. Mycological Progress, 17(8), 925–939. doi:10.1007/s11557-018-1405-6
• Gkoutselis, G. M., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J., Obst, M., Brachmann, A., Horn, M., Rambold, G. (2021). Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-021-92405-7
• Schweiger, A., Ullmann, M., Nürk, N. M., Triebel, D., Schobert, R., Rambold, G. (2021). Chemical properties of key metabolites determine the global distribution of lichens. Ecology Letters, 25, 416–426. doi:10.1111/ele.13930
• Triebel, D., Grunz, A., Seifert, S., Link, A., Rambold, G. (2021). DiversityNaviKey, a Progressive Web Application for interactive diagnosis and identification. Lecture Notes in Informatics (LNI), Gesellschaft für Informatik, 517–538. doi:10.18420/informatik2021-040
• Flessa, F., Harjes, J., Cáceres, M., Rambold, G. (2021). Comparative analyses of sooty mould communities from Brazil and Central Europe. Mycological Progress, 20, 869–887. doi:10.1007/s11557-021-01700-0
• Krasylenko, Y., Kinge, T. R., Sosnovsky, Y., Atamas, N., Tofel, K. H., Horielov, O., Rambold, G. (2022). Consuming and consumed: Biotic interactions of African mistletoes across different trophic levels. Biotropica, 54(4), 1103–1119. doi:10.1111/btp.13130

References

1. ^ "International Training Centre for Environmental Research".
2. "Prof. em. Dr. Gerhard Rambold".
3. "The Eponym Dictionary of Southern African Plants Plant Names P-S".
4. ^ "LICHENS OF THE SOUTHERN LAKE MICHIGAN REGION" (PDF).
5. "Mycological Progress - Editorial Board".
6. "Subject Editors - MycoKeys".
7. "Lichenology in Germany: Past, present and future" (PDF).
8. "DFG - Project Details".
9. "Gerhard Rambold - Department of Plant Physiology Profile".
10. "BayCEER - Bayreuth Center of Ecology and Environmental Research - Prof. em. Dr. Gerhard Rambold".
11. "A monograph of the saxicolous lecideoid lichens of Australia (excl. Tasmania) / by Gerhard Rambold".
12. "The Inter-Lecanoralean Associations. By Rambold Gerhard & Triebel Dagmar [Bibliotheca Lichenologica, No. 48]. Berlin & Stuttgart: J.Cramer 1992. Pp.201, 34 figures, 6 tables.ISBN 3 443 58027 0. Price DM 90".
13. "Gerhard Rambold - Google Scholar Profile".
14. "Chemical properties of key metabolites determine the global distribution of lichens".
15. "Fungal diversity notes 1–110: taxonomic and phylogenetic contributions to fungal species".
16. "Outline of Fungi and fungus-like taxa".
17. "Setting new standards: Multiphasic analysis of microplastic mineralization by fungi".
18. "Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems".
19. "Pathogenic fungi colonize microplastics in soils".
20. "Plastic debris in soil aids growth of dangerous fungi".
21. "Microplastic polymer properties as deterministic factors driving terrestrial plastisphere microbiome assembly and succession in the field".
22. "Project: Diversity Workbench".
23. "SNSB develops new diagnostic app for natural science objects".
24. "DiversityNaviKey, a Progressive Web Application for interactive diagnosis and identification".
25. "DEEMY – An Information System for Determination and Characterisation of Ectomycorrhizae".
26. "History - DEEMY".
27. "LIAS Imprint".
28. "History - LIAS".

• German academics
• German mycologists
• German lichenologists
• Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni
• Academic staff of the University of Bayreuth
• Living people
• 1956 births