Figure 3.

Examples of mediating role of fungi in different ecosystems. Fungi through their unique morphological and ecophysiological properties act as mutualists, commensalists, and antagonists with plants, animals, microbes and other fungi, mediate the health, performance, population dynamics and biogeography of these organisms. Meanwhile, through their affinity for and ability to break down complex substrates (notably plant derived) and even contribute to mineral weathering, fungi mediate carbon and nutrient cycles in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and through their enormous production and release of spores into the atmosphere fungi may even mediate rainfall. For example, in terrestrial systems mycorrhizal fungi mediate nutrient acquisition of plants as well as their interactions with antagonists such as plant pathogens and herbivores, while saprotrophic fungi mediate the cycling of complex plant derived substrates, and fungal pathogens mediate the population dynamics of eukaryotic hosts. In aquatic systems fungi mediate food web dynamics by controlling resource fluxes to higher order consumers in the process also mediating the efficiency of transfer across trophic levels. In human habitats such as skin and gut, the mycobiome, through complex interactions with other microbes, can play a key mediating role in human health and dysbiosis.