• Energy Research

F.T.M. was supported by European Research Council grant number 647038 (BIODESERT), Generalitat Valenciana grant number CIDEGENT/2018/041, by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant numbers EUR2022-134048 and PID2020-116578RB-I00) and by the contract between ETH Zurich and University of Alicante “Mapping terrestrial ecosystem structure at the global scale”. E.G. acknowledges funding from Generalitat Valenciana and Europen Social Fund (grant number APOSTD/2021/188). F.T.M. also acknowledges support from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) and the KAUST Climate and Livability Initiative. T.S.-S., A.G. and M.D.-B. are supported by grant number TED2021-130908B-C41 (URBANCHANGE). M.D.-B. was also supported by the European Research Council (ERC) grant number 647038 (BIODESERT), BES grant agreement number LRB17\1019 (MUSGONET), the innovation programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement number 702057 (CLIMIFUN), Ramón y Cajal grant number RYC2018-025483-I, a project from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant number PID2020-115813RA-I00; SOIL4GROWTH) and project PAIDI 2020 from the Junta de Andalucía (grant number P20_00879). C.W.M. acknowledges funding for the research provided by the NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Polar Regions Research (grant number 0852036), the German Science Foundation (DFG) for financial support in the frame of the “Initiation of International Collaboration” (grant number MU 3021/2-1) and funding within the DFG Priority Programme 1158 “Antarctic Research with Comparable Investigations in Arctic Sea Ice Areas” (grant number MU 3021/8-1). M.B. acknowledges funding from Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through a Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (# RYC2021-031797-I). Soils support a vast amount of carbon (C) that is vulnerable to climatic and anthropogenic global change stressors (for example, drought and human-induced nitrogen deposition). However, the simultaneous effects of an increasing number of global change stressors on soil C storage and persistence across ecosystems are virtually unknown. Here, using 1,880 surface soil samples from 68 countries across all continents, we show that increases in the number of global change stressors simultaneously exceeding medium–high levels of stress (that is, relative to their maximum levels observed in nature) are negatively and significantly correlated with soil C stocks and mineral association across global biomes. Soil C is particularly vulnerable in low-productivity ecosystems (for example, deserts), which are subjected to a greater number of global change stressors exceeding medium–high levels of stress simultaneously. Taken together, our work indicates that the number of global change stressors is a crucial factor for soil C storage and persistence worldwide.

Abstract Fungal pathogens are an escalating global concern due to rising incidence, limited treatment options, and growing antifungal resistance. Soils are major reservoirs of fungal diversity, yet the ecology, distribution, and human exposure risk of soil-borne pathogens remain poorly understood. Here, we present the first global atlas of soil-borne human fungal pathogens, based on high-resolution PacBio sequencing of 3,200 soil samples from 108 countries across all continents. Clinically relevant species such as Candida tropicalis and Fusarium solani exhibit distinct geographic patterns, with C. tropicalis enriched in tropical regions and F. solani more common in temperate and continental zones. Temperature and aridity emerge as key environmental drivers, selecting for thermotolerant and stress-resilient taxa in areas already under climate stress and with limited healthcare infrastructure. By integrating environmental and socioeconomic data, we identify a dual-risk scenario: fungal burden is currently highest in major economies, while sharp future increases are projected in densely populated regions of Africa and Asia, including India and Southeast Asia. Conversely, some tropical areas of South America may see stable or declining trends. Our findings call for a global One Health approach to fungal surveillance, highlighting the need for early detection and region-specific risk mitigation in the face of climate change.

This repository contains the data associated with the paper Tedersoo et al. (2022) Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi // Global Change Biology. DOI:10.1111/gcb.16398 Fungi are highly diverse organisms and provide a wealth of ecosystem functions. However, distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been very little explored compared to charismatic animals and plants. Here we assess endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. Endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are vulnerable mostly to drought, heat and land cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests and woodlands. We suggest that there should be more attention focused on the conservation of fungi, especially tropical root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi, unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high matching in conservation needs, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms in general. This repository contains the following data associated with the publication: Supplementary tables S1 - S6 (`Tables_S1-S6.xlsx`): - Table S1. Definition of ecoregions and assignment of samples to ecoregions - Table S2. GSMc dataset used for endemicity analyses - Table S3. Dataset used for modeling endemicity values - Table S4. Dataset used for calculating and mapping vulnerability scores - Table S5. Dataset used for calculating and mapping conservation value - Table S6. Additional funding sources by authors OTU distribution by samples and ecoregions (`Data_taxon_assignment_to ecoregions.xlsx`) Gridded maps: Conservation priorities for all fungi and fungal groups - ConservationPriority_AllFungi.tif - ConservationPriority_AM.tif - ConservationPriority_EcM.tif - ConservationPriority_Moulds.tif - ConservationPriority_NonEcMAgaricomycetes.tif - ConservationPriority_OHPs.tif - ConservationPriority_Pathogens.tif - ConservationPriority_Unicellular.tif - ConservationPriority_Yeasts.tif The average vulnerability of all fungi and fungal groups and the model uncertainty estimates - AverageVulnerability_AllFungi.tif - AverageVulnerability_AM.tif - AverageVulnerability_EcM.tif - AverageVulnerability_Moulds.tif - AverageVulnerability_NonEcMAgaricomycetes.tif - AverageVulnerability_OHPs.tif - AverageVulnerability_Pathogens.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_AllFungi.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_AM.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_EcM.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_Moulds.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_NonEcMAgaricomycetes.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_OHPs.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_Pathogens.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_Unicellular.tif - AverageVulnerabilityUncertainty_Yeasts.tif - AverageVulnerability_Unicellular.tif - AverageVulnerability_Yeasts.tif The relative importance of predicted vulnerability of all fungi - RelativeImportanceOfVulnerability_AllFungi.tif Vulnerability to drought, heat, and land cover change for all fungi - Vulnerability_AllFungi_Heat-Drought-LandCoverChange.tif - VulnerabilityUncertainty_AllFungi_Heat-Drought-LandCoverChange.tif Human footprint index based on the Land-Use Harmonisation (LUH2; Hurtt et al., 2020, doi:10.5194/gmd-13-5425-2020) - `LandCoverChange_1960-2015.tif` MD5 checksums for all files (`MD5.md5`) Fungal groups: - AM, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (including all Glomeromycota but excluding all Endogonomycetes) - EcM, ectomycorrhizal fungi (excluding dubious lineages) - NonEcMAgaricomycetes, non-EcM Agaricomycetes (mostly saprotrophic fungi with usually macroscopic fruiting bodies) - Moulds (including Mortierellales, Mucorales, Umbelopsidales and Aspergillaceae and Trichocomaceae of Eurotiales and Trichoderma of Hypocreales) - Putative pathogens (including plant, animal and fungal pathogens as primary or secondary lifestyles) - OHPs, opportunistic human parasites (excluding Mortierellales) - Yeasts (excluding dimorphic yeasts) - Unicellular, other unicellular (non-yeast) fungi (including chytrids, aphids, rozellids and other early-diverging fungal lineages) Detailed processing steps can be found here: https://github.com/Mycology-Microbiology-Center/Fungal_Endemicity_and_Vulnerability This repository contains the data associated with the paper Tedersoo et al. (2022) Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi // Global Change Biology. DOI:10.1111/gcb.16398 Fungi are highly diverse organisms and provide a wealth of ecosystem functions. However, distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been very little explored compared to charismatic animals and plants. Here we assess endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. Endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are vulnerable mostly to drought, heat and land cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests and woodlands. We suggest that there should be more attention focused on the conservation of fungi, especially tropical root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi, unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high matching in conservation needs, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms in general.

AbstractFungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high‐resolution, long‐read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West‐Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land‐cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early‐diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms.

Fungi are crucial for terrestrial ecosystems, yet the role of fungal diversity in ecosystem functions remains unclear. We synthesize fungal biodiversity and ecosystem function (BEF) relationships, focusing on plant biomass production, carbon storage, decomposition, and pathogen or parasite resistance. The observed BEF relationships for these ecosystem functions vary in strength and direction, complicating generalizations. Strong positive relationships are generally observed when multiple ecosystem functions are addressed simultaneously. Often, fungal community composition outperforms species richness in predicting ecosystem functions. For more comprehensive fungal BEF research, we recommend studying natural communities, considering the simultaneous functions of a broader array of fungal guilds across spatiotemporal scales, and integrating community assembly concepts into BEF research. For this, we propose a conceptual framework and testable hypotheses.