Abundant Development of Agaricales Fungi on Livingston Island, Antarctica: Potential Connections to Climate Change

Rapid warming across Antarctica is reshaping terrestrial ecosystems, yet the dynamics of macroscopic fungi in this region remain largely undocumented. Here, we present the first ecological and statistical assessment of Agaricales fungi on Byers Peninsula, Livingston Island (South Shetland Islands, Antarctica), based on surveys conducted in February 2023. Across 20 sites, we recorded 2,566 basidiomes representing eight morphospecies in three genera (Arrhenia, Galerina, and Omphalina). Community diversity was moderate (Shannon-Wiener H' = 1.97; Simpson's D = 0.85), with assemblages dominated by Omphalina (68.4% of basidiomes), while Arrhenia sp. 1 displayed the broadest spatial distribution (65% of sites). Spatial analyses revealed significant variation in Agaricales abundance among sites (ANOVA, p = 0.016), while multivariate ordination (NMDS based on Bray-Curtis dissimilarity) showed substantial overlap in morphospecies composition across dominant vegetation types, with no significant differences detected by PERMANOVA (p = 0.527). The emergence of diverse basidiome assemblages in such an extreme environment underscores the ecological relevance of fungi in polar ecosystems and highlights their potential as sensitive bioindicators of climate-driven change. This quantitative baseline provides a critical reference for long-term monitoring and advances understanding of fungal contributions to biogeochemical processes in a rapidly changing Antarctic landscape.