European mushroom assemblages are phylogenetically structured by temperature

Abstract

Recent global warming affects species compositions at an unprecedented rate. To predict climate-induced changes in species assemblages, a better understanding of the link between species occurrence and climate is needed. Macrofungal fruit body assemblages are correlated with the thermal environment at the European scale. However, it is still unknown whether macrofungal communities are also phylogenetically structured by thermal environments. Thermal environments are characterized by annual temperature means but also by intra-annual temperature variability (hereafter termed temperature seasonality), which are both considered in this study. Here, we used distribution data of 2882 species based on fruit body records across Europe to address two main questions: 1) are mushroom assemblages at the extremes of the mean (warm and cold) and seasonal (high intra-annual variability, i.e. continental) climate gradient phylogenetically more similar than expected (phylogenetic alpha diversity); 2) are mushroom assemblages, that are subject to different mean and seasonal temperature conditions, composed of different lineages (phylogenetic beta diversity). Our phylogenetic alpha diversity analysis shows that mushroom assemblages are phylogenetically structured by warm and cold environments, indicating that phylogenetically related species with similar traits thrive under more extreme conditions. In contrast, assemblages are phylogenetically more dissimilar (overdispersed) in temperature seasonal environments, indicating limiting similarity. Phylogenetic beta diversity was significantly correlated with mean and seasonal temperature differences, a response mainly driven by a few genera. Our results show that macrofungal assemblages are phylogenetically structured

Environmental responses of fruiting fungal communities are phylogenetically structured

“…Likewise, previous studies have suggested that related groups of soil‐inhabiting mycorrhizal fungi may respond similarly to environmental conditions: Chen et al (2017) demonstrated that arbuscular endomycorrhizal taxa show low specialization but clear phylogenetic signal with respect to associations with woody hosts, while Hibbett et al (2000) showed that fungus–host associations are more labile across ectomycorrhizal groups. However, only few studies have so far probed for a phylogenetic signal in how fungal communities respond to environmental constraints (Abrego et al 2022, Bässler et al 2022). Here, our study offers a seminal contribution by building on a quantitative phylogeny, rather than on using taxonomy as a proxy for relationships among taxa (cf.…”

“…At the species level, the production of visible fruiting bodies above ground is a short‐term phenomenon that is reflective of earlier, long‐term processes below ground (Kauserud et al 2010, Kim et al 2021). While these processes are invisible to a human observer, understanding how species‐level responses are constrained by the phylogenetic relationships among forest fungi is central for predicting how decomposition, nutrient cycling, and symbioses with forest trees will change as a result of anthropogenic environmental changes (Abrego et al 2022, Bässler et al 2022). Clearly, the nature of our current data prevents us from providing in‐depth inference of such effects: what we explored were patterns in the occurrence of fruiting bodies, as providing evidence only for the presence but not the absence of fungal mycelia.…”

“…One type of communities on which phylogenetic signatures remain poorly known (Abrego et al 2022, Bässler et al 2022) are local assemblages of fungal fruiting bodies. This constitutes an important knowledge gap because fungal fruiting bodies provide a resource for a plethora of organisms (Hanski 1989, Osawa et al 2011, Kurina et al 2015, Koskinen et al 2019, 2022).…”

“…While a relatively large body of literature has shown how fungal fruiting phenology depends on environmental, seasonal, and climatic variation (Straatsma et al 2001, Büntgen et al 2012, Sato et al 2012, Boddy et al 2014, Andrew et al 2018), connections between the determinants of fungal fruiting and the evolutionary history of fungi remain poorly explored. Where sought for, studies of fungal fruiting responses to environmental variation in resource availability, land‐use history and macroclimate have generally revealed a strong a strong phylogenetic signal (Bässler et al 2014, 2022, Abrego et al 2017, 2022), with related species tending to respond similarly to environmental conditions (Kauserud et al 2012). While patterns of phylogenetic signal fall short of revealing the exact evolutionary processes underlying the composition of current communities, they do provide useful information to understand and predict community structure (Webb et al 2002, Cavender‐Bares et al 2009, Cadotte et al 2013).…”

Temperature affects the timing and duration of fungal fruiting patterns across major terrestrial biomes

“…Fungal fruit bodies are the ephemeral reproductive structures in which spores are produced via complex reproductive modes (Billiard et al, 2011;Coelho et al, 2017). Altered fungal growth and fruiting conditions may diminish fungal phylogenetic (Bässler et al, 2022) and functional diversity (Bässler et al, 2021;Krah et al, 2019), biotic interaction (Crowther et al, 2015), plant drought resilience (Liu et al, 2022) and carbon sequestration (Clemmensen et al, 2013). Despite the many roles fungi play in terrestrial ecosystems, the sensitivity of their fruiting behaviour to climate remains unclear at large spatial scales (Boddy et al, 2014).…”