WP3

How temperature, moisture availability (predicted under climate change) and nutrients, as well as environmental disturbance, influence the orchid-fungal relationships; in particular: (Task 1.1) I will model species distributions under different climatic conditions (using consensus niche modelling); (Task 1.2) I will evaluate if a shift in associated fungi can provide orchid resilience to altered environmental conditions using controlled microcosm studies and identify which organisms/areas will be more suitable for future projects involving restoration, translocation, reinforcement or reintroduction. Hypothesis 3: orchid mycorrhizal fungi will vary in their tolerance to environmental change across thermal and moisture gradients. Hypothesis 4: Generalist orchid species may adapt to environmental changes by shifting their associations to other fungal taxa, whereas specialist orchid species may be more affected by the loss of their mycobiont; (Task 2) by using in field seed-baiting technique in degraded and healthy environments through soil fungi investment studies (using state of the art eDNA and eRNA monitoring tools). Hypothesis 5: a degraded habitat with less diversity in the plant community will affect the viability of the microbial community with cascading effects on orchid resilience to environmental changes and  nutritional uptake.