Forests of the future: From Harvard Forest to Costa Rican cloud forests, the eco-evo role of mycorrhizae for determining ecosystem responses to climate warming

Earth is warming from the poles to the equator, yet responses of ecosystems remain unclear. How warming affects forests is mediated by mycorrhizal fungal mutualists. Trees that coevolved with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi – including species of temperate zones and particularly the tropics – may have an advantage over trees associating with other mycorrhizal types. Temperate forests may become dominated by arbuscular-associated tree species, in this way resembling current tropical forests. Although existing closer to thermal limits, tropical trees might withstand warmer temperatures as long as their fungal associations remain intact. Mycorrhizae will buffer terrestrial ecosystem responses to global change.