The Namib Desert of south-western Africa is one of the oldest deserts in the world and possesses unique
geographical, biological and climatic features. While research through the last decade has generated a
comprehensive survey of the prokaryotic communities in Namib Desert soils, little is yet known about
the diversity and function of edaphic fungal communities, and even less of their responses to aridity. In
this study, we have characterized soil fungal community diversity across the longitudinal xeric gradient
across the Namib desert (for convenience, divided into the western fog zone, the central low-rainfall
zone and the eastern high-rainfall zone), using internal transcribed sequence (ITS) metabarcoding.
Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Chytridiomycota consistently dominated the Namib Desert edaphic
fungal communities and a core mycobiome composed of only 15 taxa, dominated by members of the
class Dothideomycetes (Ascomycota), was identified. However, fungal community structures were
significantly different in the fog, low-rainfall and high-rainfall zones. Furthermore, Namib Desert gravel
plain fungal community assembly was driven by both deterministic and stochastic processes; the latter
dominating in the all three xeric zones. We also present data that suggest that the inland limit of fog
penetration represents an ecological barrier to fungal dispersal across the Namib Desert.ACKNOWLEDGEMENT : The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the
National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of
Pretoria.The National Research Foundation of South Africa and the University of Pretoria.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/funbioam2024BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologySDG-15:Life on lan
