Global divergence in plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity hotspots

Summary

Environmental protection strategies often rely on aboveground biodiversity indicators for prioritising conservation efforts. However, substantial biodiversity exists belowground, and it remains unclear whether aboveground diversity hotspots are indicative of high soil biodiversity. Using geospatial layers of vascular plant, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, and ectomycorrhizal fungi alpha diversity, we map plant-fungal diversity associations across different scales and evaluate evidence for potential correlation drivers. Plant-fungal diversity correlations are weak at the global scale but stronger at regional scales. Plant-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal correlations are generally negative in forest biomes and positive in grassland biomes, whereas plant-ectomycorrhizal fungal correlations are mo