The critical role of tree species and human disturbance in determining the macrofungal diversity in Europe

Abstract

AimKnowledge concerning species distribution is important for biodiversity conservation and environmental management. Fungi form a large and diverse group of species and play a key role in nutrient cycling and carbon storage. However, our understanding of fungal diversity and distribution remains limited, particularly at large spatial scales. Here, we predicted the diversity and distribution of ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic macrofungi at relatively fine spatial resolution at a continental scale and examined the importance of variables that affect the distribution of these two functional groups.LocationEurope.Time period1990–2018.Major taxa studiedMacrofungi.MethodsFrom observations of 1,845 macrofungal species, we predicted the diversity and distribution of two functional groups of macrofungi at a resolution of 5 km across eight European countries based on 25 environmental variables using the MaxEnt model. We determined the importance of variables that affect the distribution of these two functional groups of macrofungi using the built‐in jackknife test in the model.ResultsAnalysis of the modelling results showed that eastern Denmark and southern Sweden are biodiversity hotspots for both functional groups of macrofungal species. Tree species and human disturbance (i.e., the human footprint index) were found to be the two most important predictor variables explaining the distribution of ectomycorrhizal and saprotrophic macrofungi.Main conclusionsOverall, our study demonstrates that tree species and human disturbance have played a more important role than climatic factors in determining the diversity and distribution of macrofungi at the continental scale. Our study suggests that fungal diversity and distribution might change considerably if the strongest predictors (i.e., tree species) were to be affected by climate change and/or human activity. Changes in fungal diversity might, in turn, influence other processes, because fungi are important in driving ecosystem processes, such as nutrient and carbon cycling.

Diversity and Distribution of Macrofungi in Protected Mountain Forest Habitats in Serbia and Its Relation to Abiotic Factors

“…Due to the exceptional ecological importance of macrofungi, research on their synecology, biogeography, and conservation status is becoming more and more plentiful [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Nevertheless, papers related to mycological research on forest habitats most often deal with the issue of only certain ecological groups of macrofungi: exclusively mycorrhizal [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ] or lignicolous [ 8 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. In contrast, studies covering the overall diversity of all ecological and taxonomic groups of macrofungi are considerably less frequent [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 ].…”

How future climate and tree distribution changes shape the biodiversity of macrofungi across Europe

“…In total, we compiled a dataset with 1845 macrofungal species and 878,978 records for final use in our model (Figure 1). More details of the dataset can be found in the study of Yu, Wang, et al (2021). All statistical analyses reported in this study, including the preprocessing of fungi data and predictor variables, were conducted in R (R Core Team, 2013).…”

“…As outlined above, plants provide carbon to macrofungi (Bässler et al, 2010; Krah et al, 2018; Watkinson et al, 2015), and many local studies have found that macrofungi composition and diversity are affected by the tree species composition and diversity (Jaroszewicz et al, 2021; Schmit et al, 2005; Zhang et al, 2010). A recent study also revealed that the dominant tree species play a crucial role in determining the diversity and distribution of macrofungi at the continental scale (Yu, Wang, et al, 2021). Given that tree species can form mutualistic relationships with macrofungi and provide them with resources, potential changes in tree species diversity and distribution under ongoing climate change (Lenoir et al, 2008; Vitasse et al, 2021) are likely to further influence related macrofungal diversity and distribution.…”

European mushroom assemblages are phylogenetically structured by temperature

“…To address our hypotheses, we compiled data on annual mean temperature and temperature seasonality. From previous studies, we know that mean and seasonal precipitation, soil organic carbon, nitrogen deposition and tree diversity correlate with the spatial distribution of fungal species (Andrew et al 2018, Yu et al 2021. To account for possible offset effects, we considered these variables as covariates.…”