Airborne DNA reveals predictable spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi

Nerea Abrego*, Brendan Furneaux, Bess Hardwick, Panu Somervuo, Isabella Palorinne, Carlos A. Aguilar-Trigueros, Nigel R. Andrew, Ulyana V. Babiy, Tan Bao, Gisela Bazzano, Svetlana N. Bondarchuk, Timothy C. Bonebrake, Georgina L. Brennan, Syndonia Bret-Harte, Claus Bässler, Luciano Cagnolo, Erin K. Cameron, Elodie Chapurlat, Simon Creer, Luigi P. D’AcquiNatasha de Vere, Marie Laure Desprez-Loustau, Michel A.K. Dongmo, Ida B.Dyrholm Jacobsen, Brian L. Fisher, Miguel Flores de Jesus, Gregory S. Gilbert, Gareth W. Griffith, Anna A. Gritsuk, Andrin Gross, Håkan Grudd, Panu Halme, Rachid Hanna, Jannik Hansen, Lars Holst Hansen, Apollon D.M.T. Hegbe, Sarah Hill, Ian D. Hogg, Jenni Hultman, Kevin D. Hyde, Nicole A. Hynson, Natalia Ivanova, Petteri Karisto, Deirdre Kerdraon, Anastasia Knorre, Irmgard Krisai-Greilhuber, Juri Kurhinen, Masha Kuzmina, Nicolas Lecomte, Erin Lecomte, Viviana Loaiza, Erik Lundin, Alexander Meire, Armin Mešić, Otto Miettinen, Norman Monkhouse, Peter Mortimer, Jörg Müller, R. Henrik Nilsson, Puani Yannick C. Nonti, Jenni Nordén, Björn Nordén, Veera Norros, Claudia Paz, Petri Pellikka, Danilo Pereira, Geoff Petch, Juha Matti Pitkänen, Flavius Popa, Caitlin Potter, Jenna Purhonen, Sanna Pätsi, Abdullah Rafiq, Dimby Raharinjanahary, Niklas Rakos, Achala R. Rathnayaka, Katrine Raundrup, Yury A. Rebriev, Jouko Rikkinen, Hanna M.K. Rogers, Andrey Rogovsky, Yuri Rozhkov, Kadri Runnel, Annika Saarto, Anton Savchenko, Markus Schlegel, Niels Martin Schmidt, Sebastian Seibold, Carsten Skjøth, Elisa Stengel, Svetlana V. Sutyrina, Ilkka Syvänperä, Leho Tedersoo, Jebidiah Timm, Laura Tipton, Hirokazu Toju, Maria Uscka-Perzanowska, Michelle van der Bank, F. Herman van der Bank, Bryan Vandenbrink, Stefano Ventura, Solvi R. Vignisson, Xiaoyang Wang, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Subodini N. Wijesinghe, S. Joseph Wright, Chunyan Yang, Nourou S. Yorou, Amanda Young, Douglas W. Yu, Evgeny V. Zakharov, Paul D.N. Hebert, Tomas Roslin, Otso Ovaskainen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaperJournal articleResearchpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fungi are among the most diverse and ecologically important kingdoms in life. However, the distributional ranges of fungi remain largely unknown as do the ecological mechanisms that shape their distributions1,2. To provide an integrated view of the spatial and seasonal dynamics of fungi, we implemented a globally distributed standardized aerial sampling of fungal spores3. The vast majority of operational taxonomic units were detected within only one climatic zone, and the spatiotemporal patterns of species richness and community composition were mostly explained by annual mean air temperature. Tropical regions hosted the highest fungal diversity except for lichenized, ericoid mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi, which reached their peak diversity in temperate regions. The sensitivity in climatic responses was associated with phylogenetic relatedness, suggesting that large-scale distributions of some fungal groups are partially constrained by their ancestral niche. There was a strong phylogenetic signal in seasonal sensitivity, suggesting that some groups of fungi have retained their ancestral trait of sporulating for only a short period. Overall, our results show that the hyperdiverse kingdom of fungi follows globally highly predictable spatial and temporal dynamics, with seasonality in both species richness and community composition increasing with latitude. Our study reports patterns resembling those described for other major groups of organisms, thus making a major contribution to the long-standing debate on whether organisms with a microbial lifestyle follow the global biodiversity paradigms known for macroorganisms4,5.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNature
Volume631
Issue8022
Pages (from-to)835-842
Number of pages8
ISSN0028-0836
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Jul 2024

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