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By StudyFinds Staff
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Reviewed by Sophia Naughton
Research led by Jim Kronstad, University of British Columbia
Apr 15, 2025
Climate change may make it possible for more dangerous fungal varieties to get past our body's defenses. (TopMicrobialStock/Shutterstock)
VANCOUVER — The most dangerous kingdom on Earth isn’t led by humans—it’s fungi. While we’ve focused on viral pandemics, over two million fungal species have been quietly evolving, destroying crops, decimating wildlife, and increasingly threatening human health. Now, new international research now warns that climate change is turbocharging this emergent crisis.
This new scientific review, published in Nature, explains how the fungal kingdom has expanded enormously over billions of years, with only a tiny fraction of species currently documented by science. While we’ve harnessed fungi for everything from bread-making to antibiotics, these organisms are now finding new pathways to cause harm as global temperatures rise.
The consequences could be devastating. Fungi already destroy 30% of crop yields globally, kill hibernating bats by the millions, and have driven numerous amphibian species toward extinction. As Earth warms, some fungi may evolve the ability to overcome our body’s natural thermal defenses, potentially unleashing new waves of drug-resistant infections.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it might be because it eerily parallels HBO’s hit series “The Last of Us,” where a warming climate enables the cordyceps fungus to adapt to human body temperatures and trigger a pandemic. While the show takes creative liberties, its central premise is scientifically plausible according to researchers.
“Fungi love to make spores,” says study author Jim Kronstad from the University of British Columbia, in a statement.
This reproductive strategy helps explain their effectiveness at spreading disease. Many fungal infections in humans, including Cryptococcus neoformans which causes meningitis, are transmitted when people inhale these microscopic spores.
Climate change is driving multiple environmental disruptions, from rising temperatures to extreme weather events, that fundamentally alter ecological relationships underlying global ecosystems. This transformation affects how fungi interact with plants, animals, and humans.
In southern Vietnam, 95% of Aspergillus fumigatus samples, a common fungus that causes severe respiratory infections, now resist standard treatments. Meanwhile, Candida auris, a deadly fungal infection first identified just 15 years ago, has mysteriously appeared on multiple continents simultaneously. It is often resistant to multiple drug classes and associated with mortality rates between 30 and 60%.
The authors specifically point to the warming climate as a potential contributor to the spread of harmful fungi like Coccidioides, which causes valley fever, and the current rise of Candida auris infections in hospitalized patients. They also mention the recent discovery of Rhodosporidiobolus fluvialis infections in humans, a fungus previously found only in the environment, further evidence that environmental changes may be driving new fungal threats.
Fungi differ fundamentally from bacteria in ways that make them particularly challenging to combat. As fellow eukaryotes, their cellular machinery closely resembles our own, making it difficult to develop treatments that kill fungal cells without damaging human ones. This explains why we have only three major classes of antifungal drugs for invasive human infections, compared to dozens of antibiotics.
The review calls for urgent cross-disciplinary efforts to address these emerging threats through what’s known as a “One Health” approach—recognizing that human, animal, and environmental health are interconnected.
This approach is essential because human activities have accelerated fungal dangers in many ways. Global trade has transported native fungi to new environments where they encounter hosts with no evolutionary defenses. Agricultural fungicides have pressured fungi to develop resistance mechanisms that work against medical treatments too. And climate change has pushed fungi to adapt to warmer environments, potentially including the human body.
Mammals have historically enjoyed significant protection from invasive fungal infections thanks to our warm body temperatures, which create an inhospitable environment for most fungi. That’s why severe fungal infections typically only affect immunocompromised individuals. But as climate warms and fungi adapt to higher temperatures, this thermal protection may weaken.
Fungi’s destructive potential extends beyond direct infections. After extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods, which climate change makes more frequent, water damage can promote indoor mold growth that triggers respiratory problems and exacerbates conditions like asthma. Mycotoxins, produced by fungi that contaminate crops, affect food safety with both acute and chronic health impacts as well.
Despite these serious concerns, fungi aren’t all bad news. They play crucial ecological roles, recycling dead organic material and serving as massive carbon sinks that help mitigate climate change.
“Fungi are super important, it’s phenomenal what they’ve done for humans,” adds Kronstad.
Fungi could also help address environmental challenges through bioremediation of pollutants and sustainable materials development. Scientists are even exploring fungal applications for lightweight, durable materials that could be used in space and ingredients for plant-based foods like vegan burgers.
With all the potential good that fungi can do for us, there is still a need for urgent investment in fungal research, enhanced surveillance systems for emerging pathogens, and new approaches to antifungal development. The researchers also emphasize the need to “ring-fence” certain antifungals exclusively for medical or agricultural use to prevent cross-resistance.
The line between beneficial allies and deadly threats grows increasingly blurred for fungi. What’s clear is that we’ve vastly underestimated these ancient organisms for too long. Understanding the fungal kingdom, in all its complexity, may well determine humanity’s future health security in an age of climate change.
This paper presents a comprehensive review of scientific literature examining the impacts of fungi on Earth’s ecosystems, with particular focus on how climate change and human activities are altering fungal-host relationships. The authors—a team of 38 international researchers from leading institutions studying fungal biology—synthesized findings from hundreds of studies across multiple disciplines including mycology, ecology, agriculture, medicine, and climate science. The review takes a “One Health” approach, recognizing the interconnections between human, animal, and environmental health.
The review identifies several key findings: 1) Climate change is altering the geographical distribution and behavior of fungi worldwide; 2) Rising temperatures may allow some fungi to adapt to higher temperatures, potentially overcoming mammals’ thermal defense against fungal infections; 3) Agricultural practices and antifungal use are driving resistance that threatens both food security and human health; 4) Global trade has facilitated the introduction of pathogenic fungi to new environments with devastating consequences for wildlife and plant populations; 5) Despite these threats, fungi also present significant opportunities for addressing environmental challenges through bioremediation, sustainable materials, and carbon sequestration.
The authors acknowledge that despite the importance of fungi to Earth’s ecosystems, their enormous richness and genetic diversity remain largely unexplored, with estimates suggesting more than 95% of fungal species are still undescribed. This knowledge gap limits our understanding of fungal ecology and potential interactions with changing environments. Additionally, the review notes that development of new antifungals is challenging and protracted due to the conserved cellular mechanisms between fungi and their eukaryotic hosts.
The research was supported by numerous funding sources including the Canadian Institutes for Health Research, National Institutes of Health, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Jarislowsky Foundation, and the CIFAR Fungal Kingdom program. Several authors disclosed relationships with pharmaceutical and agricultural companies, including consulting roles and shareholdings in antifungal development companies.
The review titled “Fungal impacts on Earth’s ecosystems” was published in Nature (Volume 638) on February 6, 2025. The paper was received on September 9, 2023, accepted on November 18, 2024, and published online in Nature on February 5, 2025. The lead authors were Nicola T. Case, Sarah J. Gurr, Matthew C. Fisher, and others, with corresponding authors Leah E. Cowen, Joseph Heitman, and Julia A. Segre.
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StudyFinds sets out to find new research that speaks to mass audiences — without all the scientific jargon. The stories we publish are digestible, summarized versions of research that are intended to inform the reader as well as stir civil, educated debate. StudyFinds Staff articles are AI assisted, but always thoroughly reviewed and edited by a Study Finds staff member. Read our AI Policy for more information.
StudyFinds publishes digestible, agenda-free, transparent research summaries that are intended to inform the reader as well as stir civil, educated debate. We do not agree nor disagree with any of the studies we post, rather, we encourage our readers to debate the veracity of the findings themselves. All articles published on StudyFinds are vetted by our editors prior to publication and include links back to the source or corresponding journal article, if possible.
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