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Constraining the effect of global change on antifungal resistance

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment volume 7, pages 145–147 (2026)Cite this article

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Antifungal resistance is a growing crisis affecting human health and agriculture that could be accelerated by global change. We call for a One Health research agenda to systematically investigate environmental drivers and inform policy to mitigate the potential of global environmental change in fuelling antifungal resistance.

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Fig. 1: Potential environmental drivers of the global increase in antifungal resistance.

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Acknowledgements

C.L. acknowledges support from the Hong Kong RGC Junior Research Fellow Scheme (P0053815). G.X. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42307045). W.F. acknowledges support from the China Scholarship Council (202304910240).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Matthias C. Rillig, Guanghui Xu & Wei Fu

  2. Key Laboratory of Wetland Ecology and Environment, Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Guanghui Xu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Regional and Urban Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Wei Fu

  4. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Kowloon, Hong Kong

    Changchao Li

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  1. Matthias C. Rillig
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  2. Guanghui Xu
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  3. Wei Fu
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Matthias C. Rillig or Changchao Li.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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‘One Health’ programme of the World Health Organization: https://www.who.int/health-topics/one-health

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Rillig, M.C., Xu, G., Fu, W. et al. Constraining the effect of global change on antifungal resistance. Nat Rev Earth Environ 7, 145–147 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-025-00756-w

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