About This Project

The eight islands of the California Archipelago are a well-studied biodiversity hotspot — but we know almost nothing about an entire Kingdom of organisms that live there: the Fungi. We hypothesize that there are dozens of undescribed and endemic fungi on, and that their functional traits are divergent from their mainland relatives. By investigating the fungi of this archipelago, our project will contribute to theories of island biogeography and ecology.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

The California Archipelago (also known as the California Channel Islands) are a group of eight islands of varying size, vegetation, disturbance history, and distance from the mainland — thus providing a fascinating study system to investigate island biogeography, functional ecology, and insular evolution.

However, although other organismal groups on the archipelago are well-studied, there's been no coordinated effort directed toward the fungi of the archipelago.
In the early 2000s, researchers published a list of fungi (although it only addressed species from one ecological guild, and only covered two of the northern islands), while other researchers discovered new species there.

Our project aims to systematically document fungi across the entire group of eight islands for the first time. We hypothesize the presence of dozens of undescribed species, including many island-endemics.

What is the significance of this project?

This project will produce the first systematic survey of fungal diversity on the Channel Islands — thus filling a major gap in our understanding of the overall California biodiversity hotspot, and supporting advances in theories of fungal biogeography. We expect to document >1,000 species across the archipelago!

We will also produce the first robust evidence to support designation of fungal species as island endemics. Because of their limited range and the sensitivity of island systems, they may be of conservation concern — our data will inform more comprehensive management planning.

Lastly, we will provide initial data on functional trait divergence between island and mainland populations of fungi — supporting initial development of theoretical frameworks of the evolution of fungi on islands.

What are the goals of the project?

Our most important overarching goal is the assembly and publication of an illustrated and annotated species list of macrofungi on all eight of the islands of the California Archipelago. As a specific sub-goal of this, we will focus on the identification and description of those fungi endemic to the California Archipelago, and to publish names for other undescribed taxa from the islands (supported by Nanopore DNA sequencing).

The secondary goal of this project will focus on investigation functional traits (e.g. spore volume and ornamentation, fruitbody size and pigmentation). This will involve methods including spectrophotometry and SEM (scanning electron microscopy) to compare traits from sample of both insular populations vs. mainland populations. Finally, we will synthesize our findings into contributions to theories of island biogeography and the evolution of functional traits.