Spatial distribution of ectomycorrhizal fungi in Europe
File(s)
Author(s)
Qi, Muyao
Type
Thesis
Abstract
Ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi play a vital role in temperate and boreal forests by forming symbiotic nutritional relationships with plant roots. Characterising the spatial distribution of ECM fungi, can help understand their habitats and predict their response to global warming. Typically, two types of data are used in ECM fungal studies, data obtained from field observation of fungal specimens (reproductive structures, hereafter fruitbody data) or DNA sequencing data obtained from ECM roots (hereafter root data). In this study, I analysed the environmental niche and geographical distribution of 66 common European ECM fungal species by using biotic and abiotic variables. I assessed how well a single data source could predict the environmental niche of ECM fungi for species with conspicuous (those forming reproductive structures easily visible aboveground) and inconspicuous fruitbodies (those forming reproductive structures not easily visible), and how host plants and global warming influence the geographical distribution of ECM fungi. The results revealed that: 1) at large scale for most species, the environmental niches estimated using either fruitbody data or root data separately had low or medium overlap along environmental gradients, 2) fruitbody data suffice for the niche area estimation of most conspicuous species, but the estimated niche densities (the probability distribution of species in environmental space) were similar when using both data sources, 3) ECM fungal host tree is a main factor in determining ECM fungal geographical distribution, and 4) the distributions of ECM fungi are projected to shift north under future climate change and vary according to their host specificity. This thesis provides contributions to guide the use of data sources as input to understand ECM fungal distributions and could help determine priority areas based on the projected occurrences of species for future sampling and inform the conservation of ECM fungi.
Version
Open Access
Date Issued
2024-12-30
Date Awarded
01/11/2025
License URL
Advisor
Bidartondo, Martin
Orme, David
Suz, Laura
Tovar, Carolina
Publisher Department
Department of Life Sciences
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)