Preliminary tropical fungal palynology of early-middle Miocene sediments from Northwestern Peru

Fungal communities are a vital part of terrestrial ecosystem functions and understanding how they respond to climate change is necessary for predicting future assemblage dynamics. Sediments deposited during the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO), 18-13 million years ago, provide an opportunity to examine fungal responses to a warming event with CO2 values similar to those today. Few fungal datasets exist for tropical regions during the MCO, and only one uses modern methods to identify fossil fungi and complete paleoecological inferences and paleoclimatological reconstructions using the nearest living relative method.https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2023/1005/thumbnail.jp

Fungi in a Warmer World: Middle Miocene Fungal Assemblages and Diversity from Alum Bluff, Florida

Fungi play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle, soil formation, and overall plant growth as terrestrial decomposers (1, 2). Thus, the study of fungi, especially in the fossil record, is critical to understanding how fungal assemblages will react to future warming events. Fossil fungi provide a large-scale, long-term dataset unavailable from modern records, allowing for the generation of viable paleoclimate reconstructions and predictions (3, 4). Despite their importance and advantages in forming ecological and climatological interpretations, deep-time fungi have been underutilized (3). The Fungi in a Warmer World (FiaWW) project aims to deliver the first global view of fungal biodiversity, ecology, and biogeography for the Miocene Climate Optimum (MCO): the warmest interval of the last 23 MY. The MCO is a good proxy for near-future climate change scenarios because atmospheric CO2 concentrations ranged between current concentrations of ~400ppm and future projected concentrations for the end of this century (5, 6).https://scholarworks.moreheadstate.edu/celebration_posters_2022/1040/thumbnail.jp