Fungal adaptation caused by global warming and identifying how those adaptations affect the future for all biodiversity.

What are the ecological and human health consequences of how fungi are adapting due to global warming and human involvement? What are some of the potential solutions?

Climate change has been affecting ecosystems through inconsistent and rising temperatures, change of pH in the soil and water, and poor air quality (Bidartondo and Ellis, 2018). These shifts have created selective pressures that enable fungi such as Candida auris, Aspergillus fumigatus, Coccidioides immitis, and Emergomyces canadensis to adapt traits to survive. These adaptations then invariantly negatively affect human health and overall biodiversity.

Global warming and human influence act together as selective pressures that accelerate fungal adaptations. This leads to many fungi developing higher heat tolerance, geographic expansion, antifungal resistance, and emerging fungal genesis. These adaptations, though, allow the fungi to survive, have heightened risks across ecosystems, agriculture, and human health.   

Fungi adapt quickly due to short generation times with flexible genomes and large population sizes. Environmental stressors such as rising temperatures and human involvement create strong selective pressures for different species. This results in adaptations harmful to mammals and microorganisms and impact their development.

Because of the major environmental effects of climate change, fungi like Candida auris, Emergomyces canadensis, Aspergillus fumigatus, and Coccidioides immitis will adapt and thrive to changing environmental conditions. This allows fungi to gain greater heat tolerance and anti-fungal resistance which impacts humans and ecosystem health.