Comparación de la disponibilidad de hongos comestibles en tierras altas y bajas de Chiapas y sus implicaciones en las estrategias tradicionales de aprovechamiento

Background and Aims: Wild edible mushroom traditional management strategies have been described for both highlands and lowlands in Mexico. It seems that, in the lowlands, the usage of this resource is lower than in the highlands. Ecological ethnomycology is concerned with understanding how certain ecological patterns in mushrooms influence traditional management strategies. In this study we present a comparison between the edible mushrooms’ fruit body availability in two distinct ecological units: The Highlands of Chiapas and the Lacandon Rainforest. Our hypothesis was that the fruit body availability is higher in both the highlands and preserved vegetation, which might explain a greater usage in these ecosystems, as well as the opportunistic usage of mushrooms in the lowlands.Methods: During 2009 and 2010, we monitored the fruit body abundance, biomass, spatial and temporal frequencies, as indicators of edible mushroom availability in rectangular transects in three sites per ecological setting (highlands/lowlands) both in preserved vegetation sites and agroecosystems in Chiapas, Mexico.Key results: In the highlands, a greater richness (35 ethnotaxa) and biomass production (12,345.2 g) was recorded, but the lowlands yielded a greater number of fruit bodies (3212) and a higher spatial and temporal frequency (76.6% and 40% respectively).Conclusions: In both ecological settings, edible mushroom availability allow their use; however, it has different ecological traits. This may explain why, in the highlands, people use a more diverse array of species and prefer those of greater biomass. Contrastingly, in the lowlands less species are used, but they are more abundant and have a greater spatial and temporal frequency. Our data demonstrate that the lowlands and agroecosystems are spaces with edible mushroom availability comparable to that of highland forests.Antecedentes y Objetivos: Las estrategias tradicionales de aprovechamiento de hongos silvestres comestibles han sido descritas de tierras altas y bajas en México. No obstante, al parecer en las tierras bajas el aprovechamiento de especies es menor que en las altas. La etnomicología ecológica se interesa en comprender cómo ciertos patrones ecológicos en los hongos pueden orientar las estrategias tradicionales de aprovechamiento. Este estudio presenta una comparación entre la disponibilidad de esporomas de hongos comestibles en dos condiciones ecológicas, Los Altos de Chiapas y la Selva Lacandona. Se plantea la hipótesis de que la disponibilidad de esporomas es mayor tanto en tierras altas como en sitios con vegetación conservada y, por tanto, esto podría explicar un mayor beneficio en dicho piso ecológico y el aprovechamiento oportunista en tierras bajas. Métodos: Durante 2009 y 2010 se monitoreó la abundancia, biomasa, frecuencia espacial y temporal como indicadores de disponibilidad, en transectos rectangulares en tres localidades de cada piso en Chiapas, México, en vegetación conservada y agroecosistemas. Resultados clave: En tierras altas existió una mayor riqueza (35 etnotaxones) y una mayor producción de biomasa (12,345.2 g), mientras que en tierras bajas se registró una mayor abundancia de esporomas (3212), frecuencia espacial (76.6%) y temporal (40%).Conclusiones: En ambos pisos ecológicos existe disponibilidad del recurso que permite su aprovechamiento; sin embargo, este se comporta diferente en términos ecológicos. Esto puede explicar porque en tierras altas las personas utilizan una mayor cantidad de especies y la preferencia por aquellas de mayor biomasa. Por el contrario, en tierras bajas se aprovecha un menor número de especies, pero más abundantes, y con mayor presencia espacial y temporal. Los datos aquí presentados muestran que las tierras bajas y los agroecosistemas son espacios con una disponibilidad de hongos tan importante como la de los bosques de tierras altas

Descripción y distribución de Hydnotrya cerebriformis (Discinaceae: Pezizales) en México

El género Hydnotrya comprende alrededor de 13 especies de Ascomicetos hipogeos, secuestrados ectomicorrízicos distribuidos exclusivamente en bosquestemplados del hemisferio norte. En este trabajo se describe e ilustra por primera vez una especie de este género, Hydnotrya cerebriformis, para México. Esta especie se distribuye en el Eje Neovolcánico Transmexicano (Estado de México, Puebla y Tlaxcala) y Nuevo León a altitudes entre los 3,100 y 4,000 m, donde se asocia a bosques de Pinus hartwegii, P. montezumae y Abiesreligiosa, principalmente. ABSTRACT The genus Hydnotrya is composed of around 13 ectomycorrhizal, hypogeous, sequestrated Ascomycetes distributed exclusively in temperate forests in the northern hemisphere. This work describes and illustrates for the first time a species of this genus, Hydnotrya cerebriformis, from Mexico. The species is distributed in the Transmexican Volcanic Belt (in the Estado de México, Puebla, and Tlaxcala) and the state of Nuevo León at altitudes between 3,100 and 4,000 m, and associated mainly with Pinus hartwegii, P. montezumae, and Abies religiosa forests

Description and distribution of Tuber incognitum sp. nov. and Tuber anniae in the Transmexican Volcanic Belt

The genus Tuber is a lineage of diverse ectomycorrhizal, hypogeous, sequestrate ascomycete fungi that are native to temperate forests in the Northern Hemisphere. Recently, many new species of Tuber have been described in North America and Asia, based on morphological characteristics and molecular data. Here we describe and illustrate a new species, Tuber incognitum, based upon phylogenetic analysis and morphological description. We also present a new record for Tuber anniae in México. These two Tuber species are distributed in the Transmexican Volcanic Belt in the states of México, Michoacán, Guanajuato, Querétaro and Tlaxcala at altitudes between 2,000 and 3,200 meters. These species are associated with Pinus (T. anniae) and Quercus forests (T. incognitum)

Metabarcoding of soil environmental DNA to estimate plant diversity globally

IntroductionTraditional approaches to collecting large-scale biodiversity data pose huge logistical and technical challenges. We aimed to assess how a comparatively simple method based on sequencing environmental DNA (eDNA) characterises global variation in plant diversity and community composition compared with data derived from traditional plant inventory methods. MethodsWe sequenced a short fragment (P6 loop) of the chloroplast trnL intron from from 325 globally distributed soil samples and compared estimates of diversity and composition with those derived from traditional sources based on empirical (GBIF) or extrapolated plant distribution and diversity data. ResultsLarge-scale plant diversity and community composition patterns revealed by sequencing eDNA were broadly in accordance with those derived from traditional sources. The success of the eDNA taxonomy assignment, and the overlap of taxon lists between eDNA and GBIF, was greatest at moderate to high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. On average, around half (mean: 51.5% SD 17.6) of local GBIF records were represented in eDNA databases at the species level, depending on the geographic region. DiscussioneDNA trnL gene sequencing data accurately represent global patterns in plant diversity and composition and thus can provide a basis for large-scale vegetation studies. Important experimental considerations for plant eDNA studies include using a sampling volume and design to maximise the number of taxa detected and optimising the sequencing depth. However, increasing the coverage of reference sequence databases would yield the most significant improvements in the accuracy of taxonomic assignments made using the P6 loop of the trnL region

Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms

Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi

Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach. We found that the endemicity of all fungi and most functional groups peaks in tropical habitats, including Amazonia, Yucatan, West-Central Africa, Sri Lanka, and New Caledonia, with a negligible island effect compared with plants and animals. We also found that fungi are predominantly vulnerable to drought, heat and land-cover change, particularly in dry tropical regions with high human population density. Fungal conservation areas of highest priority include herbaceous wetlands, tropical forests, and woodlands. We stress that more attention should be focused on the conservation of fungi, especially root symbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungi in tropical regions as well as unicellular early-diverging groups and macrofungi in general. Given the low overlap between the endemicity of fungi and macroorganisms, but high conservation needs in both groups, detailed analyses on distribution and conservation requirements are warranted for other microorganisms and soil organisms

FungalTraits:A user-friendly traits database of fungi and fungus-like stramenopiles

The cryptic lifestyle of most fungi necessitates molecular identification of the guild in environmental studies. Over the past decades, rapid development and affordability of molecular tools have tremendously improved insights of the fungal diversity in all ecosystems and habitats. Yet, in spite of the progress of molecular methods, knowledge about functional properties of the fungal taxa is vague and interpretation of environmental studies in an ecologically meaningful manner remains challenging. In order to facilitate functional assignments and ecological interpretation of environmental studies we introduce a user friendly traits and character database FungalTraits operating at genus and species hypothesis levels. Combining the information from previous efforts such as FUNGuild and Fun(Fun) together with involvement of expert knowledge, we reannotated 10,210 and 151 fungal and Stramenopila genera, respectively. This resulted in a stand-alone spreadsheet dataset covering 17 lifestyle related traits of fungal and Stramenopila genera, designed for rapid functional assignments of environmental studies. In order to assign the trait states to fungal species hypotheses, the scientific community of experts manually categorised and assigned available trait information to 697,413 fungal ITS sequences. On the basis of those sequences we were able to summarise trait and host information into 92,623 fungal species hypotheses at 1% dissimilarity threshold

Connecting the multiple dimensions of global soil fungal diversity

How the multiple facets of soil fungal diversity vary worldwide remains virtually unknown, hindering the management of this essential species-rich group. By sequencing high-resolution DNA markers in over 4000 topsoil samples from natural and human-altered ecosystems across all continents, we illustrate the distributions and drivers of different levels of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of fungi and their ecological groups. We show the impact of precipitation and temperature interactions on local fungal species richness (alpha diversity) across different climates. Our findings reveal how temperature drives fungal compositional turnover (beta diversity) and phylogenetic diversity, linking them with regional species richness (gamma diversity). We integrate fungi into the principles of global biodiversity distribution and present detailed maps for biodiversity conservation and modeling of global ecological processes

Testing a global standard for quantifying species recovery and assessing conservation impact.

Recognizing the imperative to evaluate species recovery and conservation impact, in 2012 the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called for development of a "Green List of Species" (now the IUCN Green Status of Species). A draft Green Status framework for assessing species' progress toward recovery, published in 2018, proposed 2 separate but interlinked components: a standardized method (i.e., measurement against benchmarks of species' viability, functionality, and preimpact distribution) to determine current species recovery status (herein species recovery score) and application of that method to estimate past and potential future impacts of conservation based on 4 metrics (conservation legacy, conservation dependence, conservation gain, and recovery potential). We tested the framework with 181 species representing diverse taxa, life histories, biomes, and IUCN Red List categories (extinction risk). Based on the observed distribution of species' recovery scores, we propose the following species recovery categories: fully recovered, slightly depleted, moderately depleted, largely depleted, critically depleted, extinct in the wild, and indeterminate. Fifty-nine percent of tested species were considered largely or critically depleted. Although there was a negative relationship between extinction risk and species recovery score, variation was considerable. Some species in lower risk categories were assessed as farther from recovery than those at higher risk. This emphasizes that species recovery is conceptually different from extinction risk and reinforces the utility of the IUCN Green Status of Species to more fully understand species conservation status. Although extinction risk did not predict conservation legacy, conservation dependence, or conservation gain, it was positively correlated with recovery potential. Only 1.7% of tested species were categorized as zero across all 4 of these conservation impact metrics, indicating that conservation has, or will, play a role in improving or maintaining species status for the vast majority of these species. Based on our results, we devised an updated assessment framework that introduces the option of using a dynamic baseline to assess future impacts of conservation over the short term to avoid misleading results which were generated in a small number of cases, and redefines short term as 10 years to better align with conservation planning. These changes are reflected in the IUCN Green Status of Species Standard