Charcoal-feeding fungi were not necessarily the most heat-tolerant
WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
Researchers compared seven Trichoderma and Mucor isolates grown on pyrogenic carbon, sucrose and control substrates under different temperatures. Many could grow on fire-derived carbon, but evidence that charcoal use and heat tolerance were coordinated was weak. Growth strategies also varied substantially within species.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Disturbance ecology needs to treat different microbial traits separately: persistence through heat, colonization after fire and decomposition of black carbon do not have to be the same adaptation.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
Laboratory growth of seven isolates is not a measurement of ecosystem-scale decomposition, soil carbon turnover or field postfire recovery. Traits may vary with substrate and environment, and the source is an accepted, early-layout manuscript.
SOURCE
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution — Chung et al. (2026)
View original evidence ↗
Seven cultured fungal isolates from a fire-adapted system complicate the idea that all postfire traits travel together.
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