Record breaking mushroom yields in Spain

Abstract Despite the assumption that mushroom fruiting is dependent on climate conditions, recent changes in temperature and precipitation regimes in Mediterranean-type ecosystems have opened new questions about how climate changes impact epigeous sporocarps yields. Here, we described the epigeous fungal sporocarp yield anomalies together with temperature and precipitation fluctuations that have triggered atypical fungal production peaks during the last 20 years in different forest ecosystems of Mediterranean Spain. We used the largest standardized, spatio-temporal epigeous sporocarp collection dataset available in Mediterranean-type forest ecosystems and climates. Two clear positive yield anomalies were found in 2006 and 2014, representing more than 270% and 210% increase, respectively, in comparison with time-series mean annual fungal yields. Late-summer-early-autumn precipitation was the most influential variable triggering these extreme mushroom production peaks in comparison with temperature. This suggests that fungal fruiting is sensitive to late-summer-early-autumn precipitation pulses, producing discrete yield pulses when conditions are optimal, which are interspersed among periods of limited water resource availability and lower yields.