Explaining European fungal fruiting phenology with climate variability

Abstract

Here we assess the impact of geographically dependent (latitude, longitude, and altitude) changes in bioclimatic (temperature, precipitation, and primary productivity) variability on fungal fruiting phenology across Europe. Two main nutritional guilds of fungi, saprotrophic and ectomycorrhizal, were further separated into spring and autumn fruiters. We used a path analysis to investigate how biogeographic patterns in fungal fruiting phenology coincided with seasonal changes in climate and primary production. Across central to northern Europe, mean fruiting varied by approximately 25 d, primarily with latitude. Altitude affected fruiting by up to 30 d, with spring delays and autumnal accelerations. Fruiting was as much explained by the effects of bioclimatic variability as by their large-scale spatial patterns. Temperature drove fruiting of autumnal ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic groups as well as spring saprotrophic groups, while primary production and precipitation were major drivers for spring-fruiting ectomycorrhizal fungi. Species-specific phenology predictors were not stable, instead deviating from the overall mean. There is significant likelihood that further climatic change, especially in temperature, will impact fungal phenology patterns at large spatial scales. The ecological implications are diverse, potentially affecting food webs (asynchrony), nutrient cycling and the timing of nutrient availability in ecosystems.

Open‐source data reveal how collections‐based fungal diversity is sensitive to global change

“…We found reasonable support for increased accuracy in modeling fungal diversity via temporally dynamic covariates, which we expected as it is well established that species‐specific fruiting is cued by episodic changes in, especially, precipitation and temperature (e.g., Andrew et al., ; Gange et al., ). Environmental variables that fluctuated on finer spatial scales and whose relationships to fungal biology acted on smaller scales than overall means (e.g., daily temperature and precipitation) were especially strengthened by the inclusion of a dynamic covariate for analyses.…”

“…Seasonality is likely the reason for the significance of collection day precipitation, as its patterns better captured coastal highs of western Europe (Appendix 6). That a precipitation signal was picked up contrasts with previous research on phenology (Andrew et al, 2018a) and assemblages (Andrew et al, 2018b), and demonstrates the power of dynamic covariates to enhance our understanding of the effect of global change on fungi.…”

“…). This further relates to the mid‐latitude and forest system trends just discussed, but emphasizes the importance of climate drivers directly on fungal richness, as well as indirectly via effects on the richness of forest trees (e.g., Andrew et al., ). This distinction not only emphasizes the importance of temperature related to seasonality, but also explains how northern regions, with lower mean annual temperatures, can support higher fungal diversity.…”

“…Collections databases formed through museum specimens and curated citizen science data (inclusive of individual and group “amateur” collections and surveys) are ideal for macroecology research, relating the presence of organisms to global change and, especially, past to present impacts of climate (Lavoie, ; Wen et al., ; Andrew et al., ; Willis et al., ). Patterns and processes governing the biogeographical distributions of organisms in their natural environments can be elucidated across geographical gradients at previously unprecedented scales (Andrew et al., , b). The environmental roles shaping fungal diversity are open for investigation, especially within a backdrop of global change (Fisher et al., ; Pärtel et al., ; Soudzilovskaia et al., ; Titeux et al., ; Mucha et al., ).…”

“…For example, urbanization and forest management each impact biodiversity (Paillet et al., ; Dvořák et al., ), with interactions between land‐use change and climate (Mair et al., ) as well as tree species diversity (Spake et al., ). Likewise, climate affects assemblages of fungi, which consequently impacts phenological patterns (Talbot et al., ; Andrew et al., , b). Potentially cascading effects include those to diversity, dispersal, and composition (Titeux et al., ).…”