Pleurotus citrinopileatus, courtesy of A. Khitsun.


mycoses (e.g., aspergillosis, invasive mold infections, and coccidioidomycosis in the western USA). I know what you’re thinking: isn’t


everything in smoke the result of incineration? Te answer is no. As fires approach, everything begins to heat up, including soils. With the heat and accompanying wind, all manner of liquids, aerosols, and even heavier matter can be picked up and carried, along with the smoke resulting from the fires. Many microbes have a pretty high resistance to heat. Some soil-dwelling microbes appear tolerant of, and even proliferate under, high temperatures following high-intensity and/or high- severity wildfire. We’re still a long ways away from knowing how far and which microbes are transported in smoke under various conditions are critical unknowns, but the relevance of these questions is increasing with longer wildfire seasons and higher severity trends. And just keep in mind those


images we’ve seen over the past couple of years, where smoke from wildfires in western North America have been carried across the Great Plains and into the Midwest, and at other times have traveled across the Pacific Ocean, reaching China. Smoke from fires resulting from the creation of oil palm plantations in Southeast Asia have encircled the Southern Hemisphere for months at a time. Tus, wildfires may truly have a global impact.


Loss of Biodiversity “We are destroying the life-support


systems of Earth rapidly, making our future uncertain.” Tis was the grim assessment of Peter H. Raven, president emeritus of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and Scott E. Miller, chief scientist and interim director of the Smithsonian Libraries, in a recent editorial in the journal Science. Tey continued: “Ecosystems—the complex sets of organisms that form


Fall 2021 FUNGI Volume 14:4 39


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