Fungal Adaptation to Polluted Environments.

Abstract

Humans have changed ecosystems on Earth in a myriad of different ways including the input of lethal levels of toxic compounds in habitats forcing organisms to adapt or die. New environmental challenges select for different adaptive traits and species communities; however, in historically poorly characterised taxa and communities, such as the fungi, it is a challenge to know exactly what these changes are. In this chapter, we summarise our knowledge of fungi adapting to polluted environments by compiling a broad-stroke review. We find that most research has been framed in terms of remediation and biomonitoring. Remediation is mostly studied in soil fungi and biomonitoring in lichen and mycorrhizal communities. We expect that genomics advances and advances in detecting microscopic fungi via metabarcoding will open up possibilities for the study of adaptations and communities in such environments. We also reflect upon how polluted environments change the evolutionary and ecological context of these organisms.