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Fungal biodiversity in aquatic habitats

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Abstract

Fungal biodiversity in freshwater, brackish and marine habitats was estimated based on reports in the literature. The taxonomic groups treated were those with species commonly found on submerged substrates in aquatic habitats: Ascomycetes (exclusive of yeasts), Basidiomycetes, Chytridiomycetes, and the non-fungal Saprolegniales in the Class Oomycetes. Based on presence/absence data for a large number and variety of aquatic habitats, about 3,000 fungal species and 138 saprolegnialean species have been reported from aquatic habitats. The greatest number of taxa comprise the Ascomycetes, including mitosporic taxa, and Chytridiomycetes. Taxa of Basidiomycetes are, for the most part, excluded from aquatic habitats. The greatest biodiversity for all groups occurs in temperate areas, followed by Asian tropical areas. This pattern may be an artifact of the location of most of the sampling effort. The least sampled geographic areas include Africa, Australia, China, South America and boreal and tropical regions worldwide. Some species overlap occurs among terrestrial and freshwater taxa but little species overlap occurs among freshwater and marine taxa. We predict that many species remain to be discovered in aquatic habitats given the few taxonomic specialists studying these fungi, the few substrate types studied intensively, and the vast geographical area not yet sampled.

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Acknowledgments

The following individuals are acknowledged for their respective contributions to this paper: H. A. Thornton and D. Porter (Chytridiomycota, Chytridiomycetes); C.A. Shearer (Freshwater Meiotic Ascomycetes); E. Descals and L. Marvanová (Aquatic Hyphomycetes); H. Voglmayr (Freshwater Aeroaquatic Mitosporic Fungi); H. A. Raja (Miscellaneous Freshwater Mitosporic Ascomycetes); J.P. Schmit (Mangrove Fungi); J. Kohlmeyer and B. Volkman-Kohlmeyer (Marine Meiosporic and Mitosporic Ascomycetes); and D. Padgett (Oomycetes, Saprolegniales).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Biology, University of Illinois, Room 265 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

    Carol A. Shearer, Huzefa A. Raja & John P. Schmit

  2. IMEDEA (CSIC-UI), c. Miquel Marqu∂s 21, Esporles, Balears, E07190, Spain

    Enrique Descals

  3. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina, Morehead City, NC, 28557, USA

    Brigitte Kohlmeyer & Jan Kohlmeyer

  4. Czech Collection of Microorganisms, Tvrdeho 14, Brno, CZ-602 00, Czech Republic

    Ludmila Marvanová

  5. Biology Department, UNC-Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, 28403, USA

    David Padgett

  6. Department of Botany, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, 30602-7271, USA

    David Porter & Holly A. Thorton

  7. Institute of Botany, University of Vienna, Rennweg 14, Wien, A-1030, Austria

    Hermann Voglymayr

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  1. Carol A. Shearer
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Correspondence to Carol A. Shearer.

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Shearer, C.A., Descals, E., Kohlmeyer, B. et al. Fungal biodiversity in aquatic habitats. Biodivers Conserv 16, 49–67 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-006-9120-z

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