Science 316, 71 (2007)

Credit: A. C. GANGE

The fruiting season for fungi in southern England has more than doubled in the last half century owing to the region's warmer summers and wetter autumns. Many species are now also fruiting twice a season. This is an unprecedented change in reproductive behaviour attributable to the planet's warming.

Alan Gange of the University of London and colleagues found that the period from first to last fruiting for autumn-fruiting species has increased from around 33 days in the 1950s to almost 75 days in the current decade. The fruiting season expansion correlates to higher temperatures in the region since 1975. The researchers also found that 140 of the 315 species studied now fruit twice a year.

The study of more than 52,000 records of fruiting dates expands the body of data on the effects of climate change on living organisms. Previous studies have focused on springtime changes to growth and migration patterns of birds, insects and plants. Fungi play a key role in forest ecosystems, breaking down leaf litter and returning nutrients to trees via their roots. The expanded fruiting season implies a major increase in nutrients available to trees and thus increased tree growth.