Tracking Climate Change Through a Mushroom's Diet
Environmental differences that show up in fungi might give researchers a glimpse of climate shifts that have only just begun.
by Veronique Greenwood
May 30, 2017
2 minutes
The mushroom dots American lawns from Texas to Illinois, a small white button on the grass’s emerald expanse. Unlike similar mushrooms, does not live in a symbiotic relationship with nearby trees; instead, it gets its energy by feasting on the corpses of its neighbors—that is, dead grasses. That predilection means that the mushroom is uniquely suited to report on what those grasses were like. In fact, an analysis of 40-odd samples taken from lawns across the Midwest over 27 years suggests that the mushrooms, as a result of the grasses they eat, may be able reflect the changing climate of the last few decades in their chemistry.
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