Climate-linked biogeography of mycorrhizal fungal spore traits

Climate-driven variation in traits is crucial for predicting ecological responses to environmental change, yet global patterns and drivers of microbial trait variation remain poorly understood. Using global datasets of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal observations linked to spore morphological traits, we show that climate shapes spore trait variation and functional diversity. Larger spore volumes were more prevalent in warm, wet climates but were associated with smaller species range sizes, suggesting a trade-off between persistence and dispersal potential. Similarly, ornamented spores were more common in warm, wet climates and were associated with narrower range sizes. Cell wall investment (i.e., wall thickness relative to volume) decreased in warmer, wetter climates compared to cooler, drier ones, and was the strongest predictor of species range size, with intermediate investment associated with larger geographic distributions. Spore shape and color (i.e., melanin pigmentation) also..., , # Climate-linked biogeography of mycorrhizal fungal spore traits

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.m0cfxppgh](10.5061/dryad.m0cfxppgh)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset includes harmonized data from publicly available arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal spore traits from TraitAM, AM fungal presence-absence data, along with estimated abundance from GlobalAMFungi, and additional presence-absence records from Stürmer et al. (2018). All missing data represented as NA.

### Files and variables

#### File: df\_metadata.biogeography.traits.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Good. names: Standardized taxonomic names of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal species
* Longitude_Decimal: Geographic longitude (in decimal degrees) of the site.
* Latitude_Decimal: Geographic latitude (in decimal degrees) of the site.
* id: Unique identifier achieved through the paper reference-latitude-longitude combination, called 'site' for the paper
* year_of_sampling: The year the sample...,