Impact of Climate Change on Aquatic Hypho- and Terrestrial Macromycetes
Verónica Ferreira and Elena Voronina
from: Climate Change and Microbial Ecology: Current Research and Future Trends (Edited by: Jürgen Marxsen). Caister Academic Press, U.K. (2016) Pages: 53-72.
Abstract
Freshwater fungi are important components of heterotrophic food webs in woodland streams. These organisms are pioneer colonizers of submerged litter derived from the terrestrial surroundings, and through their activities, they mineralize litter carbon and nutrients and convert dead organic matter into biomass, establishing the link between basal resources and higher trophic levels. Likewise, soil macrofungi play a key role in forest plant communities as litter and wood decomposers, mycorrhizal symbionts or xyloparasites. High saprotrophic activity determines their significance in providing access to nutrients for other groups of organisms. Here, we address direct and indirect effects of climate change on the community composition, growth, reproduction, metabolism, and decomposing activity of aquatic hyphomycetes, and on the growth, abundance, fruiting phenology, community structure and distribution of terrestrial macromycetes, primarily ectomycorrhizal fungi, but also saprotrophs. Evidence so far suggests that future global climate change will affect aquatic hyphomycete activity and community structure, with consequences for the functioning of woodland streams. Similarly, macromycetes will experience changes in community structure, and shifts in phenology and distribution. The individual responses of ectomycorrhizal fungi to global changes are particularly difficult to address because these fungi depend on host plants and cannot be dissociated from them. We offer several proposals to advance knowledge on the effects of global climate change on these fungi read more ...
