Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

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.