Monitoring and mapping fungal diversity for nature conservation
Call
Duration
01/01/2024 – 31/12/2026
Total grant
Approx. 3,7 mil. €
More information
Jacob HEILMANN-CLAUSEN
jheilmann-clausen@sund.ku.dk
Partners of the project
- Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Globe Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark Department of Biosciences, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
- Faculty of biology, chemistry & earth sciences, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany Faculty of Applied Sciences, Department of Cybernetics, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic
- Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Federal Institute For Forest, Snow And Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland Laboratory of General and Agricultural Microbiology, Agricultural University of Athens, Athens, Greece
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
- Department of Research and Education, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Netherlands Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- Global Forest Ecosystem Research, Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Solsona, Spain
- Research Group Mycology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
- Faculty of Science, Department of Zoology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic
- Department of Plant Anatomy, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary
- Ecology of Fungi, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- Mycology Department, Real Jardín Botánico, The Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain
- Research Centre in Biodiversity and Genetic Resource, BIOPOLIS association, Vairao, Portugal
- Department of Interaction, Ecology and Societies, Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology, Montpellier, France
- Department of Cybernetic, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
- Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- MycoKey, Tirstrup, Denmark
- Botany Department, Natural History Museum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany
- Danish Mycological Society, Hillerød, Denmark Polish Mycological Society, Warsaw, Poland
Context
Fungi constitute one of the largest groups of organisms on earth with central importance for ecosystem functioning. Many fungi are highly specialised and associated with threatened habitats, such as old-growth forests, ancient grasslands and forests on nutrient- poor or calcareous soils. They provide key habitats or resources for other organisms such as orchids and saproxylic beetles, as well as food, income, and outdoor leisure for humans. Finally, they play a crucial role in carbon cycling, regulating both carbon uptake and release in terrestrial ecosystems.
Despite their obvious relevance for understanding nature and ecosystem change, fungi have traditionally been neglected in biodiversity conservation. They were not included in the Bern Convention and the EU Habitats Directive, and as a result, fungal conservation is mainly relying on local and national initiatives of variable nature. Corroborating this, fungi were recently identified as a highly overlooked taxonomic group in European nature monitoring by the Europa Biodiversity Observation Network (EuropaBon).
Main objectives
The main objective of FunDive is to bring fungi firmly on the European biodiversity map. We will explore spatio-temporal changes in fungal communities and analyse how well the Habitats Directive captures fungal biodiversity. Further, we will develop and test new tools and methods for fungal biodiversity mapping and monitoring, combining citizen science and standardised sampling of environmental DNA (eDNA). Finally, an important objective is to consolidate open data resources underlying collaboration on fungal biodiversity by substantially improving taxonomic identification and data linked to DNA-based fungal occurrences.
Main activities
FunDive will combine citizen science, AI tools, sporocarp- and eDNA-based monitoring to provide a state of the art for mapping and monitoring fungal biodiversity. We will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the different methodologies to develop complementary approaches with a focus on nature conservation. Further, in order to improve direct comparisons of eDNA versus sporocarp – based data, we will work to provide a substantially enhanced platform for the consistent naming of fungal taxa supported by DNA barcodes obtained from well- annotated reference material. As part of the project, we will engage with mycological societies and disseminate our results not only to the scientific community, but also to governmental and non-governmental organisations working in conservation and at the science-policy interface.
By these activities we aim to provide improved practical tools for:
- threat assessment, including red listing of fungi;
- assessing how well red-listed fungi are protected in conservation areas and EU-habitat types;
- engaging citizen scientists in biodiversity discovery and monitoring;
- monitoring ecosystem functioning and biodiversity to provide
- early warnings of climate change impact on ecosystem functioning
- indicators of critical nitrogen loads, and
- indicators of conservation status, especially in forests and grassland habitats.
