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PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Fungal Biol.
Sec. Fungal Physiology and Metabolism
Volume 5 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2024.1438347
This article is part of the Research Topic Highlights of the 1st FUN-EX conference: Evolution, biodiversity, taxonomy and genomics of extremophilic and extremotolerant fungi View all 5 articles
Fungi of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: A Spatial Survey
Provisionally accepted- Westminster University, Salt Lake City, United States
The natural system at Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA was augmented by the construction of a rock-filled railroad causeway in 1960, creating two lakes at one site. The north arm is sequestered from the mountain snowmelt inputs and thus became saturated with salts (250-340 g/L). The south arm is a flourishing ecosystem with moderate salinity (90-190 g/L) and a significant body of water for ten million birds on the avian flyways of the western US who engorge themselves on the large biomass of brine flies and shrimp. The sediments around the lake shores include calcium carbonate oolitic sand and clay, and further away from the saltwater margins, a zone with less saline soil. Here a small number of plants can thrive, including Salicornia and Sueda species. At the north arm at Rozel Point, halite crystals precipitate in the salt-saturated lake water, calcium sulfate precipitates to form gypsum crystals embedded in the clay, and high molecular weight asphalt seeps from the ground. It is an ecosystem with gradients and extremes, and fungi are up to the challenge. We have collected data on Great Salt Lake fungi from a variety of studies and present them here in a spatial survey. Combining knowledge of cultivation studies as well as environmental DNA work, we discuss the genera prevalent in and around this unique ecosystem. A wide diversity of taxa were found in multiple microniches of the lake, suggesting significant roles for these genera:
Keywords: Great Salt Lake, Hypersaline adaptation, Halophilic fungi, eDNA, microbial community diversity
Received: 25 May 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Parrott and Baxter. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Bonnie K. Baxter, Westminster University, Salt Lake City, United States
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