How the multiple facets of soil fungal diversity vary worldwide remains virtually unknown, hindering the management of this essential species-rich group. By sequencing high-resolution DNA markers in over 4000 topsoil samples from natural and human-altered ecosystems across all continents, we illustrate the distributions and drivers of different levels of taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity of fungi and their ecological groups. We show the impact of precipitation and temperature interactions on local fungal species richness (alpha diversity) across different climates. Our findings reveal how temperature drives fungal compositional turnover (beta diversity) and phylogenetic diversity, linking them with regional species richness (gamma diversity). We integrate fungi into the principles of global biodiversity distribution and present detailed maps for biodiversity conservation and modeling of global ecological processes.

Root and butt rots caused by Heterobasidion spp. are destructive diseases of conifer forest stands that may be controlled by spraying freshly cut stumps with chemical or biological treatments, including the effective and widely used biological control agent Phlebiopsis gigantea. In this study, we tested in vitro different Latvian isolates of the fungal species Bjerkandera adusta and Sistotrema brinkmannii for their antagonistic activity against both Heterobasidion species present in Northern Europe and Baltic countries, namely H. annosum and H. parviporum, using Latvian isolates of P. gigantea and the Rotstop® strain as controls. The growth rate of isolates on agar media and their ability to produce oidia or conidia were also assessed. In general, B. adusta performed better than S. brinkmannii. Some isolates of B. adusta ranked similarly to those of P. gigantea in terms of oidia production, growth rate and ability to overgrow the mycelium of both H. annosum and H. parviporum. These isolates will be further tested in field conditions. Key words: biological control, antagonistic fungi, fungal isolates

Diplodia sapinea is a cosmopolitan endophyte and opportunistic pathogen having occurred on several conifer species in Europe for at least 200 years. In Europe, disease outbreaks have increased on several Pinus spp. in the last few decades. In this study, the genetic structure of the European and western Asian D. sapinea population were investigated using 13 microsatellite markers. In total, 425 isolates from 15 countries were analysed. A high clonal fraction and low genetic distance between most subpopulations was found. One single haplotype dominates the European population, being represented by 45.3% of all isolates and found in nearly all investigated countries. Three genetically distinct subpopulations were found: Central/North European, Italian and Georgian. The recently detected subpopulations of D. sapinea in northern Europe (Estonia) share several haplotypes with the German subpopulation. The northern European subpopulations (Latvia, Estonia and Finland) show relatively high genetic diversity compared to those in central Europe suggesting either that the fungus has existed in the North in an asymptomatic/endophytic mode for a long time or that it has spread recently by multiple introductions. Considerable genetic diversity was found even among isolates of a single tree as 16 isolates from a single tree resulted in lower clonal fraction index than most subpopulations in Europe, which might reflect cryptic sexual proliferation. According to currently published allelic patterns, D. sapinea most likely originates from North America or from some unsampled population in Asia or central America. In order to enable the detection of endophytic or latent infections of planting stock by D. sapinea, new species-specific PCR primers (DiSapi-F and Diplo-R) were designed. During the search for Diplodia isolates across the world for species specific primer development, we identified D. africana in California, USA, and in the Canary Islands, which are the first records of this species in North America and in Spain.