It is perhaps the most striking example of how global warming is turning up the heat on the world's wildlife. Across the UK, wild mushrooms are reproducing twice a year instead of the usual once, the first time climate change has been reported to affect the life cycle of any organism in this way.
Many fungus species spend their lives in the soil as a fibrous mat called a mycelium. Once a year they reproduce, forming the fruiting bodies that are the familiar caps and stools that speckle forest floors. In the UK, this used to happen around September, during the onset of the British autumn. Now all that has changed.
Within just 50 years, many fungi have doubled the length of their breeding season from 33 days on average to
74, according to a survey of 315 species conducted by Alan Gange at
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK, and colleagues.
