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Fungi play key roles in ecosystems and human societies as decomposers, nutrient cyclers, mutualists, and pathogens. Estimates suggest that roughly 3–13 million fungal species exist worldwide, yet considerable knowledge gaps exist regarding the mechanisms and consequences, both ecological and social, of fungal dispersal from local to global scales. In this review, we summarize concepts underlying fungal dispersal, review recent research, and explore how fungi possess unique characteristics that can broaden our understanding of general dispersal ecology. We highlight emerging frontiers in fungal dispersal research that integrate technological advances with trait-based ecology, movement ecology, social–ecological systems, and work in unexplored environments. Outstanding research questions across these themes are presented to stimulate theoretical and empirical research in fungal dispersal ecology. Advances in fungal dispersal will improve our understanding of fungal community assembly and biogeography across a range of spatial scales, with implications for ecosystem functioning, global food security, and human health.
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Fungal functional ecology: bringing a trait‐based approach to plant‐associated fungi
ABSTRACT Fungi play many essential roles in ecosystems. They facilitate plant access to nutrients and water, serve as decay agents that cycle carbon and nutrients through the soil, water and atmosphere, and are major regulators of macro‐organismal populations. Although technological advances are improving the detection and identification of fungi, there still exist key gaps in our ecological knowledge of this kingdom, especially related to function.Trait‐based approaches have been instrumental in strengthening our understanding of plant functional ecology and, as such, provide excellent models for deepening our understanding of fungal functional ecology in ways that complement insights gained from traditional and ‐omics‐based techniques. In this review, we synthesize current knowledge of fungal functional ecology, taxonomy and systematics and introduce a novel database of fungal functional traits (FunFun). FunFunis built to interface with other databases to explore and predict how fungal functional diversity varies by taxonomy, guild, and other evolutionary or ecological grouping variables. To highlight how a quantitative trait‐based approach can provide new insights, we describe multiple targeted examples and end by suggesting next steps in the rapidly growing field of fungal functional ecology.
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- PAR ID:
- 10457530
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Biological Reviews
- Volume:
- 95
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 1464-7931
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 409-433
- Size(s):
- p. 409-433
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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