After reading the paragraph below, answer the questions that follow.
As fungi play important roles in ecosystem processes as decomposers and symbiont partners, scientists are interested in understanding how global climate change may affect fungal diversity. In 2007-2008, scientists visited the maritime Antarctic, an area of the Southern Hemisphere that is noted to be warming the fastest, to conduct a survey of fungal diversity along a climatic gradient (the most prevalent weather conditions of a region along an incline). Twenty-nine soil samples were taken along the gradient. Fungal diversity was measured in operational taxonomic units (OTUs); one OTU = one cluster, or group, of organisms. Here is a portion of the data collected:
Source: Newsham, K. K., Hopkins, D. W., Carvalhais, L. C., Fretwell, P. T., Rushton, S. P., O'Donnell, A. G., & Dennis, P. G. (n.d.). Relationship between soil fungal diversity and temperature in the maritime Antarctic.
Nature Climate Change, 6, 182-186.
What might scientists also predict to find in warmer environments based on the data in the figure?
◦ decreased rate of decomposition
◦ increased rates of clear-cutting practices
◦ increased rate of nutrient cycling in the soil
◦ decreased mycorrhizal growth
Fungi
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