Forests, which cover a large portion of the Earth's terrestrial surface, play a crucial role in maintaining ecological balance as dynamic ecosystems that are directly affected by climate change and characterized by high levels of biodiversity. Within this biodiversity, microfungi contribute significantly to the sustainability and resilience of forest ecosystems through their roles in carbon cycling, nutrient cycling, soil formation, and soil–tree interactions. Determining the biodiversity of microfungi, which directly influence soil health in this living and densely populated ecological niche, enables the monitoring of forest and soil health while also providing insight into the extent to which urban forests have developed forest-like ecological characteristics.
Monitoring forest biodiversity is essential not only for assessing forest and soil health but also for understanding afforestation processes, the condition of protected areas, the impacts of human activities, the prevention of biodiversity loss, and the influence of urban environments on forests established within cities. Furthermore, such monitoring facilitates cooperation among relevant authorities in the development of sustainable management strategies.
Within the scope of this study, the microfungal biodiversity of urban forest and agricultural soils, as well as its interactions with climatic factors, was investigated. Soil samples were collected from an urban forest and surrounding agricultural lands in the Eskişehir province of Türkiye according to the LUCAS soil sampling protocol. Cultural isolation was performed from soil samples using Potato Dextrose Agar supplemented with Rose Bengal. A total of 71 and 58 isolates were obtained from agricultural and forest sites, respectively. Morphological examination revealed that the isolates predominantly belonged to the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Talaromyces, as well as members of the family Dematiaceae. Microfungal biodiversity was further determined using ITS DNA barcoding and Sanger sequencing techniques.
The results of this study demonstrated that microfungal biodiversity in agricultural soils tends to favor pathogenic, resistant, and/or mycotoxigenic microfungi possessing sexual reproductive structures, likely due to environmental factors and anthropogenic influences. In addition, the study highlights the ecological importance of microfungal biodiversity lost as a consequence of human intervention and aims to support the integration of soil microfungal biodiversity assessments into sustainable forest and agricultural management practices. Furthermore, the identification of potential bioindicator species reflecting changes driven by human activities and global warming, together with the contribution of DNA barcode data to international genetic databases, is anticipated.