Florian Barbi

Introduction Climate change represents one of the most pressing global challenges of our time, with significant shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns expected to reshape ecosystems world-wide. These changes will affect species distributions, interactions, and survival across all trophic levels, resulting in profound consequences for biodiversity and ecosystem functionality (Amundson et al., 2015; Baldrian et al., 2023).

Introduction Compared to other major groups of organisms, the biogeography of mycorrhizal fungi remains largely enigmatic. These fungi form mutualistic symbiosis with > 80% of plant species (Brundrett & Tedersoo, 2018), and drive essential ecosystem functions and services, such as plant nutrition, pest control and soil aggregation (Martin & van der Heijden, 2024).

Introduction Ever since the work of Johann Reinhold Forster and Alexander von Humboldt, biologists have been fascinated by the striking gradients in species diversity across latitudes (Forster, 1778) and elevations (von Humboldt & Bonpland, 2013).