Climate change fruitful for fungi

A remarkable father-and-son research project has revealed how rising temperatures are affecting fungi in southern England

Alan who is the son of Edward has analysed that some fungi have started to fruit twice a year. It is among the first studies to show a biological impact of warming in autumn. "My father was a stonemason, and his hobby was mycology," recounted Alan Gange, an ecology professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. I'm on top of the world, I can't quite believe it yet "For 50 years of his life, he went out and recorded the appearance of mushrooms and toadstools around Salisbury, and he also got his friends in the local natural history group to bring back samples they found when they were out walking." After his retirement he bought a computer and prepared a data base programme and entered all the 52,000 records in it. His records include 315 species of mushrooms and toadstools which appear in the autumn. These mushrooms are the seasonal fruits which are a part of fungi that live in the soil, on rotting wood or in tree roots. After his observation for more than 50 years Edward Gange says he is convinced that the climate is changing - at least within a 30km radius of Salisbury.