Symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungi in southern South America: macroecology and evolutionary history from community to landscape scale

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Many questions remain about what causes organisms to occur where they do. Answers to those questions are gradually being solved for for plants and animals but little is known about the distribution patterns of microbes. Ectomycorrhizal fungi are beneficial microbes that help plants obtain nutrients, resist diseases, and tolerate drought. This project will study the biodiversity and biogeography of ectomycorrhizal fungi in economically important trees in southern South America such as Nothofagus (southern beech). The main goals of this work are to document the evolutionary history of Nothofagus-associated fungi from South America, determine how environmental variables affect fungal diversity, and understand more about how fungi disperse around the globe. Fungi will be documented by DNA sequencing from environmental samples and via collections of fungal specimens (e.g. mushrooms).This project is an international collaboration that will include research, education, and cultural exchange among biologists, students, and citizen scientists from the USA, Chile, and Argentina. In addition to scientific publications on fungal biodiversity, fungal evolution, and fungi that are new to science, this project will also produce a free, bilingual, online e-book detailing the common and charismatic fungi from Nothofagus forests in Chile and Argentina. This work will increase scientific literacy about fungi in South America and data from the project will enhance native Nothofagus forestry and will inform conservation decision-making for Nothofagus.