Marine Fungi and Fungal-like Organisms. 2012. (Marine and Freswater Biology). illus. XIII, 532 p. gr8vo. Hardcover.

Marine fungi play a major role in marine and mangrove ecosystems.Understanding how higher fungi with their spectrum of cellulolytic andligninolytic enzymes degrade wood tissue, while labyrinthuloids andthraustochytrids further contribute to the dissolved organic matterentering the open ocean is essential to marine ecology. This workprovides an overview of marine fungi including morphology and ultrastructure, phylogeny, biogeography and biodiversity. Increasingly,biotechnology is also turning to these organisms to develop new bioactive compounds and to address problems such as decomposition ofmaterials in the ocean and bioremediation of oil spills. These potentialapplications of marine fungi are also treated. In the light of massive marine oil spills in the past years, the importance of understandingmarine fungi and their role in the food chain cannot be underestimated.