FunDive: Monitoring and mapping fungal diversity for nature cons

"Our task is to find these six invasive fungi”, says Eyes on Alien Mushrooms coordinator Susana C. Gonçalves. 👇Read more on Wilder
wilder.pt/.../estamos-....
Photo: jczamorajpg/iNaturalist

📄A new paper by Louis Mielke and colleagues, published in Field Mycology, explains FunDive's goals and sums up its first results.
🔗Read more about connecting citizen science, eDNA and type specimens of fungi: doi.org/10.63482/php...
open access

Thanks to the kind permission of the authors, the keys are already freely available to support FunDive project. They are well-illustrated and easy to use, a great help for anyone wishing to contribute to our sampling campaigns. Explore the keys and enjoy identifying!
🔗 fun-dive.eu/en/dissemina...

🔍🔑Keys on the website!
You can find expert-level identification keys for several FunDive targets on our website. Prepared by Jens Petersen, the keys come from the book "Fungi of Temperate Europe: Keys to the Basidiomycotes" (Læssøe T., Petersen J., Frøslev T., Heilmann-Clausen J., expected in 2026)

These environmental samples come from the soil, deadwood, and the air collected from 200 pine forests throughout Europe. We will soon find out what these forests hold, both in their soil and above ground!
Text: Franziska Richter
More about sampling fungal communities: fun-dive.eu/en/fungal-co...

Great news from our Workpackage 4 - Sampling fungal communities!😎🌲🍄
Last week, #FunDive sent about 2500 environmental DNA samples for sequencing. We will investigate fungal diversity in European pine forests using different methods.
#Biodiversa

😎The mushroom collection and identification were completed with the help of the amazing citizen scientists Jacopo Vujovic and Tommaso Martellini, both experts in fungal taxonomy. Moreover, university students were also involved in the project.
🔗Urban mushroom campaign: fun-dive.eu/.../current....

🍄Mission: Urban mushrooms started in Bologna🍄
🔍🏡The mycology research group from the Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Bologna (Italy) began mushroom sampling in three urban areas: near the Botanic Garden of Bologna, the Montagnola Park, and the Margherita Gardens.

3/3 Learn more about Genetic mushrooming and Copernicus Science Centre (in Polish)
🔗 www.kopernik.org.pl/badania-i-ro...
Video about Genetic mushrooming:
🔗 www.facebook.com/share/v/15UT...

2/3 🍄🧬So far, DNA has been extracted from over 500 fungal specimens. These data will support discovery and conservation of fungi across Europe. 🧪🔬For students, it’s also a chance to try real lab work and see if they enjoy it! #CitizenScience

1/3 🍄🧬Genetic mushrooming
Who says mushrooming only happens in forests? With FunDive & Copernicus Science Centre collab, students and Centre visitors step into the modern lab and isolate DNA from fungi collected for FunDive. Results are visible here 👉https://fun-dive.eu/en/dataportal/
#Biodiversa

🍄🎉 FunDive Bingo!
We have created a bingo sheet where you tick off FunDive targets as you spot them. A fun way to gamify citizen science, learn about fungi, and make fieldwork even more exciting! Perfect for classes, excursions, or your own mushroom walks.

Thrilled to launch yet another #CitizenScience campaign for @fundive-fungi.bsky.social ‪🙃

The campaign' accompanying flyer is published in the open-access platform Zenodo, free to download, share, and cite: doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

#UrbanBiodiversity #FunDive #Mycology #Conservation #iNaturalist

The rest of the specimen is repacked into standard envelopes, labelled and put into herbarium boxes for preservation. This season we were lucky to have volunteers who helped with these tasks. Pani Mirosława Lisiecka was one of them!
#CitizenScience #Biodiversa

🍄Ever wondered what happens to your #FunDive specimens? Here is a sneak peek. We receive thousands of specimens, packed in random packages. After arrival, we sample a small piece for DNA extraction into the eppendorf tube.
#CitizenScience #Biodiversa

🍄 #Typification: fixing fungal names
Many species of fungi were described long ago with only a short phrase or drawing-no type (reference) specimen!
This #FunDive campaign aims to collect type specimens & sequence DNA to anchor names and stabilize taxonomy. #Biodiversa
🌍 fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...

We know that 🍄Tricholoma eucalypticum🍄 grows with eucalyptus trees, but how many similar species exist in Europe? We don’t know! Help #FunDive to find out! For more educational materials, visit: fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol... #Biodiversa

🍄Microfungi on insects🍄
Fungi in the genus Hesperomyces are associated exclusively with ladybirds, visible as yellowish-greenish elongated balloons. We aim to map them in Europe and describe #newspecies. Join the #FunDive campaign! #Biodiversa fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...

📣SAVE THE DATE📣
We are delighted to invite you to the meeting "Fungal Conservation in Europe: Evidence to Action" which will take place in Uppsala, Sweden 14-17 April 2026. Organized by SLU Artdatabanken, Swedish Mycological Society, ECCF, EMA, #FunDive, SLU, JONEF, and SPUN.

🍄Fungi that eat fungi🍄
The genus #Hypomyces parasitises exclusively other fungi, coating them in white mycelium that later becomes yellow, green or red.
We aim to map them in Southern & Western Europe and discover new species. Join the new #FunDive campaign! #Biodiversa fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...

Hygrophorus + fir = 💚
Some waxycaps form strong mycorrhizal ties with firs (Abies), especially in Southern Europe. While some #Hygrophorus species are Red-listed, others are poorly studied. Join the new #FunDive campaign and help map them and their habitats! #Biodiversa fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...

🍄Have you ever seen truffle-like #Russulales?
Some Russula skip the classic mushroom shape (stipe, open cap and gills). Instead, they form enclosed, truffle-like fruitbodies! Join the new #FunDive campaign and help us map them and sequence their genomes fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol... @biodiversa.eu

Did you know that the Copper Spike Mushroom (Chroogomphus rutilus) is a species complex with at least 8 similar species in Europe? Hiking in the pine forest on vacation? Help us map Chroogomphus distribution by sampling specimens from different European regions!
#CitizenScience #Chroogomphus

Let’s join the new FunDive sampling season!

🍄This year, we are not only continuing the projects started last year but also launching new ones🍄

➡️Visit our webpage to learn more fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol... and join our fungal discovery mission!

🧬It's time to Read the Slime!
#Slimemoulds are weird, wonderful, and still understudied fungi-like organisms. You can help understand them.
Join the new FunDive citizen science campaign to find and sequence them 👉 fun-dive.eu/en/get-invol...
#ReadTheSlime #CitizenScience #Barcoding #FunDive

Marina presents MoSTFun to a bio monitoring expert.

Sergio highlights forest fungi monitoring on 1 of 2 FUNDIVE posters.

#Funga in the future of biodiversity monitoring!
#BiodivMon
Here represented by:
Marina Pastor - #AquaticFungi
Sergio de Miguel - #ForestFungi

@mostfun.bsky.social
@fundive-fungi.bsky.social