Diversity, Biogeography and Conservation of Macrofungi from Neotropical Montane Ecosystems
Mountains are known to harbor a unique, endemism-rich biodiversity. Despite this understanding, mountains are among the most poorly studied terrestrial ecosystems, especially when it comes to fungi. Climate change is expected to be especially detrimental to montane biodiversity, as temperature rises, and cloud and rain regimens change, potentially making montane and upper-montane ecosystems more and more restricted to higher altitudes. The goal of this project is to understand the composition of the Funga of different montane ecosystems along the Neotropics, comparing that diversity between different montane and lowland ecosystems through analyses of alpha and beta-diversity and phylogenetic relationships. That, coupled with past distributional models and predictions for future distribution under different scenarios, will help us also understand what the impacts of climate change will be on these communities, and serve as a tool for assessing their conservation status using the IUCN criteria.
Photo Credits:
Thiago Kossmann
Thiago Kossmann