"Breaking down leaves is basically hard work, so if the fungi have the option of an easier life, they take it?"

Why - and how - do algae slow the rate of leaf decomposition in aquatic ecosystems? In this podcast, Ken Thompson interviews Hal Halvorson about his paper "Periphytic algae decouple fungal activity from leaf litter decomposition via negative priming", recently shortlisted for Functional Ecology's Haldane prize.

(Find this and the other shortlisted papers at http://j.mp/2019HaldaneShortlist).