An Apocalypse of Toxic Fungi Could Threaten Millions of Lives Within 15 Years
A new study analyzing different climate scenarios discovered that toxic fungi will likely spread into new areas in the future, possibly threatening millions.
Life-sustaining fungi that break down plant and animal matter could also be at risk of extinction in some of the warmest regions of the Earth—particularly on the African continent.
It's estimated that scientists have only cataloged about 10 percent of all fungi on Earth, so unknown surprises would likely be in store as fungi spread beyond their historic regions.
When writing about climate, lots of ink—or pixels, in a 21st-century context—is spent talking about the potential devastating impacts that climate change will have on plant and animal life. However, little is mentioned about the kingdom Fungi. Hundreds of thousands of species of fungi have been described, but that's likely only 10 percent of the total number of fungal species that exist on Earth. These species include everyone's delicious favorites, but also some more dangerous species that can cause toxic infections in animals and agricultural crops.
So, in a new study from the University of Manchester, scientists asked the question of what rising global temperatures could mean for the proliferation of some of these meaner mycelia. In a paper published on the preprint platform ResearchSquare, Norman van Rhijn, the lead author of the study, and his team describe what our fungal future has in store.
'Changes in environmental factors, such as humidity and extreme weather events, will change habitats and drive fungal adaptation and spread,' van Rhign said in a press statement. 'We've already seen the emergence of the fungus Candida auris due to rising temperatures, but, until now, we had little information of how other fungi might respond to this change in the environment.'
The researchers analyzed the effects of rising temperatures on infection-causing fungi using different climate scenarios up to the year 2100. The study showed that within 15 years, if the world still relies on mostly fossil fuels instead of clean energy, fungi like Aspergillus flavus—a cause of agricultural rot that also produces mycotoxins that are harmful to mammals—will spread by 16 percent, which would put an additional 1 million people at risk of infection in Europe alone. This is largely because A. flavus is more thermotolerant than other fungi, meaning that it can thrive in hot, humid climates where other fungi simply could not.
Unfortunately, this proliferation is relatively tame compared to Aspergillus fumigatus, which would increase its range by 77.5 percent and put an additional nine million people in Europe at risk under this worst-case scenario. While described as a weak pathogen in previous studies, A. fumigatus can cause a severe or even fatal infection for people with immune deficiencies.
'Fungi are relatively under researched compared to viruses and parasites, but these maps show that fungal pathogens will likely impact most areas of the world in the future,' van Rhign said in a press statement. 'Raising awareness and developing effective interventions for fungal pathogens will be essential to mitigate the consequences of this.'
While the spread of these toxic fungi—whose infections are hard to avoid, as they mostly travel in the air we breathe— the inverse may also be a cause for concern. Some life-sustaining fungi, responsible for breaking down plant and animal matter, may not be able to survive in some of the hottest parts of the world (especially on the African continent). It's basically a one-two punch of bad news.
Additionally, the study only examined the roughly 10 percent of the fungi we know about, so even more infections or health concerns could arise from surprising sources currently unknown to us. Though it has yet to be peer-reviewed, the paper details compelling evidence that our fungal future is a dismal one unless we seriously curtail carbon emissions in the coming years. Transitioning to a clean energy future is the best path forward—for all of the plants, animals, and overlooked fungus among us.
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