Monitoring Strategies and Tools to address knowledge gaps on aquatic Fungal biodiversity
Call
Duration
01/04/2024 – 31/3/2027
Total grant
Approx. 1,7 mil. €
More information
Andreas BRUDER
andreas.bruder@supsi.ch
Partners of the project
- Institute of Microbiology, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, Mendrisio, Switzerland
- Molecular Ecology Group (MEG), National Research Council of Italy, Water Research Institute CNR-IRSA of Verbania, Verbania, Italy
- Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), Stechlin, Germany. Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Potsdam University, Potsdam, Germany
- Department of Aquatic Sciences and Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden
- Faculty of Biosciences, Fisheries and Economics, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Tromsø, Norway
- Department of Marine Biology and Oceanography, The Institute of Marine Science of the Spanish National Research Council (ICM- CSIC), Barcelona, Spain
- Institute of Technology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
- Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Tromsø, Norway
- Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
- Global Center for Species Survival, Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Context
Aquatic fungi govern critical ecosystem processes involved in supporting, provisioning, and regulating services. Aquatic fungi are responsible for instance for carbon and nutrient cycling, breakdown of pollutants, and control of microalgal blooms in aquatic ecosystems. However, they are not included in any routine and large-scale biodiversity monitoring programme. This gap in current biodiversity monitoring programs precludes any valuing of aquatic fungi species by private and public stakeholders, as well as their conservation, which ultimately threatens the many services and benefits that aquatic fungi provide to society. MoSTFun will pave the way for the inclusion of aquatic fungi into routine biodiversity monitoring programmes at the continental scale.
Main objectives
MoSTFun will develop the knowledge, approaches, and network needed to initiate routine monitoring of aquatic fungi biodiversity across the environmental, biogeographic, and political landscape of the European continent. It will also fill gaps in currently not routinely monitored ecosystems with intense human impacts, such as glaciers and estuaries, and not routinely monitored emerging threats, such as the spread of anti-fungal resistance genes. In addition to producing novel data and knowledge, MoSTFun will also take the first steps towards implementation of biodiversity monitoring programmes for aquatic fungi through intensive stakeholder engagement. It will coordinate for this purpose with established global initiatives including the Biodiversity Observation Network of the Group on Earth Observations (GEOBON) and IUCN. Their engagement will also support the transfer of knowledge and guidelines to other regions and continents.
Main activities
MoSTFun will collect and reanalyse published datasets and metagenomes to understand aquatic fungi biodiversity across Europe. It will also reanalyse DNA from other biodiversity monitoring programmes targeted at other organism groups and measure aquatic fungi biodiversity to complement these datasets. It will perform novel sampling in case studies in environments that lack biodiversity monitoring programmes such as glaciers and estuaries. It will use these datasets to develop monitoring approaches and guidelines for aquatic fungal biodiversity and integrate them into established monitoring concepts, in particular Essential Biodiversity Variables. It will coordinate stakeholder engagement and coordination with related initiatives throughout the project and beyond with a novel Knowledge-to-Action hub on aquatic fungi biodiversity.
