MISSION: Fungal Diversity Survey (FUNDIS) protects biodiversity through the conservation of fungi and their habitats by increasing knowledge and public awareness of their diversity and distribution, equipping and engaging community scientists, and partnering with land managers, conservationists, and scientists.

VISION: FUNDIS envisions a world in which the fungal kingdom is fully documented, understood, appreciated, and protected.

Fungi make up one of life’s kingdoms – as broad a category as “animals” or “plants” – yet we’ve documented less than ten percent of species. Today, fungi are under threat like never before, from habitat loss, pollution and climate change, and species are undoubtedly going extinct faster than we can catalog and map them.

Fungal Diversity Survey (FUNDIS) is the only nonprofit focused on North America's fungal biodiversity and conservation.

In Europe, 10% of fungi are threatened with extinction (Kew 2020). In America, we don't know what fungi are threatened because we do not have a baseline understanding of fungal biodiversity and distribution. These data are critically important for land managers to protect fungi and conserved lands for the benefit of humans and ecosystems. We aim to empower amateur mushroom enthusiasts, or community scientists, and collaborate with academics and conservationists to document and protect fungi across North America.

Community science is also called citizen science and public participation in scientific research. We use community because many amateur scientists see themselves as part of a growing community, and because we want to avoid confusion with the citizenship status of volunteers.

“In citizen science, the public participates voluntarily in the scientific process, addressing real-world problems in ways that may include formulating research questions, conducting scientific experiments, collecting and analyzing data, interpreting results, making new discoveries, developing technologies and applications, and solving complex problems. In crowdsourcing, organizations submit an open call for voluntary assistance from a large group of individuals for online, distributed problem solving.” CitizenScience.gov  

Resources

• Community science for fungi
   
  • A four-tiered model for crowdsourcing fungal biodiversity citizen science. [blog post]
    • Bill Sheehan. 2020. Deep Funga blog.
      
      
  • In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms. [book & audiobook]
    • Doug Bierend. 2021. Chelsea Green Publishing.  [section on FunDiS near the end of Chapter 4]
       
  • How citizen science boosted primary knowledge on fungal biodiversity in Denmark.  [pdf]
    
    • Heilmann-Clausen, Jacob, et al. 2019. Biological Conservation 237: 366-372.

You can get involved with FunDiS in a few ways:

Level 1.  Document:  Create high quality observations on iNat and/or Mushroom Observer. Get started.

Level 2.  Sequence:  In addition, submit tissue for DNA sequencing and interpret results. More info.

Level 3.  Voucher:  In addition, preserve well-documented, dried specimens in curated fungaria. More info.

Level 4.  Super User:  In addition, learn DNA technology, teach others how to analyze DNA results and create phylogenies; perhaps even describe new species. More info.


READ:  A four-tiered model for crowdsourcing fungal biodiversity citizen science

Sources

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (2018/2020). State of the world’s fungi. 978-1-84246-678-0