Fungi in a Warmer World: A preliminary view of the fungal diversity of Thailand and Slovakia in the middle Miocene.

ROMERO C. INGRID; NUÑEZ OTAÑO N.B.; SPEARS M. TYLER; FAIRCHILD JOLENE C.; JONES SAVANNAH; TARLTON LAIKIN; BELKIN HARVEY E.; WARNY SOPHIE; POUND MATTHEW; O'KEEFE JENNIFER M. K.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Congreso; 53rd AASP-TPS Annual Meeting at LSU; 2021

The palynological society

The middle Miocene Climate Optimum (MMCO) is considered the warmest interval of the last 23 million years and the best analogus for near future climate change scenarios. Fungi play a key role in the terrestrial carbon cycle as dominant decomposers of plant debris. Thus, their study in the fossil record, especially during the MMCO, is essential to better understand biodiversity changes and terrestrial carbon cycle dynamics in past analogous environments, as well as, to model future ecological and climatic secenarios. The fossil record also offers a unique long-term large-scale dataset to evaluate fungal assemblages dynamic across long temporal and spatial scales, providing a better understanding of how ecological factors influenced assemblage development through time. Here, we assess the fungal diversity and community composition recorded in two geological sections from the early middle Miocene from the coal mines of Thailand, and Slovakia. We used presence-absence data to quantify the fungal diversity of each locality. Spores and fungal remains are correlated with their nearest living relatives whenever possible, but fossil names when available are used when this correlation is not possible. This study represents the first of its kind for southeast Asia, and it expands existing work from Slovakia. Our preliminary results indicate over 180 morphotypes in Thailand, while approximately half that number of morphotypes in Slovakia. Although impacted by taphonomy, fungal assemblage biodiversity appears to be following predicted patterns, as it is higher in the tropics and lower in temperate regions, and has the greatest diversity during peak warming. This work will allow us to use modern fungal ecological data to make inferences about ecosystem characteristics and community dynamics for the studied regions and open new horizons for the study of past fungal guilds based on modern fungal ecological analyses. It also sheds light on how ancient global variations in fungal species richness and community composition were affected by different climatic conditions and under rapid increases of temperature to make inferences for the near climatic future.