Global climate change has the potential to shift the roles and prevalence of mutualisms, including the positive interactions between plants and microorganisms. A combination of field surveys and common garden experiments has revealed a paradox: fungal mutualists promote long-term, range-wide population persistence of their host plants, especially under drought, yet are selected against by interannual climate variability.
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This is a summary of: Li, V. W. et al. Climate variability disrupts microbial mutualism-driven population persistence. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02943-w (2026).
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Climate variability disrupts crucial plant–fungal mutualisms. Nat Ecol Evol (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02944-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02944-9
