TY - JOUR
T1 - The contribution of pelagic fungi to ocean biomass
AU - Breyer, Eva
AU - Stix, Constanze
AU - Kilker, Sophie
AU - Roller, Benjamin R.K.
AU - Panagou, Fragkiski
AU - Doebke, Charlotte
AU - Amano, Chie
AU - Saavedra, Daniel E.M.
AU - Coll-García, Guillem
AU - Steger-Mähnert, Barbara
AU - Dachs, Jordi
AU - Berrojalbiz, Naiara
AU - Vila-Costa, Maria
AU - Sobrino, Cristina
AU - Fuentes-Lema, Antonio
AU - Berthiller, Franz
AU - Polz, Martin F.
AU - Baltar, Federico
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2025 The Author(s)
PY - 2025/5
Y1 - 2025/5
N2 - Metagenomic analysis has recently unveiled the widespread presence of pelagic fungi in the global ocean, yet their quantitative contribution to carbon stocks remains elusive, hindering their incorporation into biogeochemical models. Here, we revealed the biomass of pelagic fungi in the open-ocean water column by combining ergosterol extraction, Calcofluor-White staining, catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH), and microfluidic mass sensor techniques. We compared fungal biomass with the biomass of other more studied microbial groups in the ocean such as archaea and bacteria. Globally, fungi contributed 0.32 Gt C (CI: 0.19–0.46), refining previous uncertainty estimates from two orders of magnitude to less than one. While fungal biomass was lower than that of bacteria, it exceeded that of the archaea (archaea:fungi:bacteria biomass ratio of 1:9:44). Collectively, our findings reveal the important contribution of fungi to open-ocean biomass and, consequently, the marine carbon cycle, emphasizing the need for their inclusion in biogeochemical models.
AB - Metagenomic analysis has recently unveiled the widespread presence of pelagic fungi in the global ocean, yet their quantitative contribution to carbon stocks remains elusive, hindering their incorporation into biogeochemical models. Here, we revealed the biomass of pelagic fungi in the open-ocean water column by combining ergosterol extraction, Calcofluor-White staining, catalyzed reporter deposition fluorescence in situ hybridization (CARD-FISH), and microfluidic mass sensor techniques. We compared fungal biomass with the biomass of other more studied microbial groups in the ocean such as archaea and bacteria. Globally, fungi contributed 0.32 Gt C (CI: 0.19–0.46), refining previous uncertainty estimates from two orders of magnitude to less than one. While fungal biomass was lower than that of bacteria, it exceeded that of the archaea (archaea:fungi:bacteria biomass ratio of 1:9:44). Collectively, our findings reveal the important contribution of fungi to open-ocean biomass and, consequently, the marine carbon cycle, emphasizing the need for their inclusion in biogeochemical models.
KW - mycoplankton
KW - suspended microchannel resonator
KW - global biomass
KW - calcofluor-white
KW - oceanic fungi
KW - CARD-FISH
KW - ergosterol
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105005962331&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.004
DO - 10.1016/j.cell.2025.05.004
M3 - Article
SN - 0092-8674
JO - Cell
JF - Cell
ER -