Historic vouchers and recent collections of Arctic Canadian non-lichenized fungi found in the National Mycological Herbarium (DAOM)

The Canadian National Mycological Herbarium (DAOM), hosted by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa, holds Canadian Arctic collections of primarily non-lichenized fungi, including the samples brought back from the Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-18 and identified by John Dearness. Additional samples were collected in the 1960s when departmental botanists and mycologists visited the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) stations. Many of the plant parasitic fungi found represented new records for Canada. These fungal collections represent an invaluable repository of DNA, useful for monitoring the impact of global warming on fungal diversity in cold environments. For the past 50 years, collecting has been sporadic and involved researchers in universities, foreign institutes, and by the Museum of Nature staff. DNA barcoding for recent specimens collected by AAFC staff during recent field trips are the subject of a second poster (Stefani et al. 2017).