Forests in the Mediterranean basin are currently in decline. Their resilience has been eroded as a result of climate change and anthropogenic impacts, making them vulnerable to increasingly frequent episodes of drought, fire and the spread of pests and diseases. The impact of these natural and anthropogenic events on soil biodiversity is of particular concern, as the soil fungal community plays a key role in ecosystem homeostasis.
In order to analyse the relationship between soil health status and fungal diversity, soil samples were collected from declining Mediterranean forests of
A total of 674 fungal genera were found. It has not been possible to explain the differences in health status from the fungal genera found exclusively on declining forest soils, as none of them have been described as pathogenic. Healthy chestnut soils were characterized by a high alpha diversity and a higher abundance of the genus
This work highlights the resilience of fungal communities of soil against decline and highlights the need to further investigate its relationship with the forest’s ability to cope with the challenges of climate change.