ABSTRACT
Fungal dynamics and biodiversity patterns in arid environments are tightly coupled to rainfall patterns, the extent of available moisture, and periods of optimal temperatures that occur together within an arid landscape. To predict the potential impacts of climate change and anthropogenic impacts on fungal biodiversity and activity, one has to first understand how the current abiotic environment in arid landscapes constrains and structures the growth, activity, species interactions, and patterns of abundance for fungal assemblages in these landscapes. Zak et al. (1995) have stated that it is the level of resource heterogeneity coupled with abiotic constraints of moisture and temperature that exists in arid ecosystems that controls much of the fungal dynamics in these systems. Desert environments are considered to exhibit the greatest variability in resources that influence the composition and richness of communities occurring in these ecosystems (Polis, 1991; Whitford, 2002).
