The incubation of oxic and anoxic conditions showed that the diversity of fungi capable of living under anoxic conditions must be greater than thought

Benthic marine microorganisms make an important contribution to marine nutrient cycling and the associated long-term storage of carbon in sediments. Fungi are actively involved in the decomposition process, but little is known about their community structure under oxic and anoxic conditions. In a meta-analysis, a high-throughput sequencing dataset of 39 ITS2-based benthic fungal communities was analyzed, and the oxygen availability on assembly were investigated. In addition, a culture experiment was conducted to investigate the adaptability of fungal communities taken at the oxic-hypoxic threshold to hypoxic conditions. The incubation experiments showed that about 25% of all fungal taxa could flexibly cope with oxic/anoxic conditions and another 25% showed anoxic-specific occurrence. The latter indicates that probably the diversity of anoxic-living fungal taxa and their associated biochemical pathways must be higher than previously believed. The diversity of fungi capable of living under anoxic conditions must be greater than thought.