Anthropogenic impact on environmental filamentous fungi communities along the Mediterranean littoral

We hypothesised that anthropogenic influences impact the filamentous fungi community structure and that particular species or species patterns might serve as markers to characterise ecosystems. This study aimed to describe the filamentous fungi community structure in various biotopes along the Mediterranean shore that were exposed to various levels of anthropogenic influence. We sampled filamentous fungi from yellow-legged gull faecal samples at five study sites along the Mediterranean littoral in southern France. The sites were characterised by variable anthropogenic influence, ranging from building rooftops in two cities to a natural reserve. The sites also included two suburban ecoclines, one of which was exposed to sewer pollution. Filamentous fungal colonies were quantified and identified via MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. Interestingly, we found that both fungal diversity and abundance were low in urban areas compared with suburban ecocline or environments little affected by anthropogenic influence. Furthermore, some fungal species were clearly associated with particular environments. In particular, Mucor circinelloides was associated with a natural environment with little anthropogenic impact and distant from human settlements. Whereas, Scedosporium apiospermum was associated with an ecocline polluted by sewage. Our findings indicate that particular fungal species or species combination might be used as surrogate markers of ecosystems exposed to anthropogenic pollution.