ARD Wissen lets IHI researchers explain the importance of fungi for forest fires

Every summer, the devastating fires in the Mediterranean region flicker across the screens, but at the latest since large areas of forest in Saxon Switzerland, i.e. in a previously "temperate zone", fell victim to the flames and most recently due to the Hollywood-like fire in L.A. that threatened movie star villas, not only the renowned weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT has stated that "an age of fire is looming". Now that all media channels are filled with corresponding dystopian scenarios - both fictional and documentary - public television is now attempting to scientifically classify the development in the format "ARD Wissen" - and above all to address the question of which ecological processes can help to counteract the impending catastrophic development. And this is where IHI Zittau comes into play: after all, a research group from the Chair of Environmental Biotechnology under Prof. Martin Hofrichter has been working for years on the question of the biodiversity of fungi after forest fires and How the succession of fungi following fires takes place and what they do when there is no fire - especially in the devastated Saxon Switzerland or the Gohrischheide, which was recently plagued by fire again! The ARD Wissen reporter team about the Saxon Switzerland National Park quickly came into contact with Dr. Alexander Karich from IHI Zittau and is now filming in the IHI laboratories on Lausitzer Weg and at the market. The report is expected to go online in the ARD media library in the fall (link to follow!), and the analog broadcast will probably follow in 2026.