Monitoring Strategies and Tools to address knowledge gaps on aquatic FUNgal biodiversity

Aquatic fungi (AF) govern critical ecosystem processes that provide pivotal provision and regulation services. They are responsible for nutrient cycling, breakdown of pollutants, control of algal blooms. MoSTFun is a pan-European initiative that brings together the complementary expertises of 8 European partners and a representative of the IUCN Species Survival Commission to envision AF monitoring in all aquatic ecosystems in Europe (excl. open sea), across a large latitudinal range, while also disseminating the project to global partners and audiences. By bringing together the main EU long-term monitoring initiatives, available databases, remote sensing data and archival DNA resources MoSTFun consortium will develop the most efficient strategy that maximizes existing resources with a cost-efficient approach. Indeed, freezers, archives, and data-repositories are untapped sources of samples and data that are waiting the MoSTFun way to be capitalized.