A fundamental goal in community ecology is to understand what factors drive community assembly processes. The factors affecting ectomycorrhizal fungal communities are unknown in many regions, particularly in the southern hemisphere. We investigate community assembly using ITS2 metabarcoding of ectomycorrhizal fungi sampled from 3943 hyphal ingrowth bags buried in 81 Nothofagus forests across New Zealand's South Island. By applying zeta diversity analysis and multisite generalized dissimilarity modelling (MS‐GDM) we quantify the effects of 43 biotic and environmental variables on community turnover. Unlike traditional beta diversity analyses that are heavily influenced by rare species, the zeta diversity framework differentiates between factors driving turnover of rare and common species, providing a more complete picture of community dynamics. We found that community assembly was dominated by deterministic rather than stochastic processes and identified ecological factors affecting all taxa, as well as others that were specifically important to rare or common taxa. Soil variables were important drivers of turnover for all species, whereas ground cover variables, forest patch size, precipitation and host tree identity had greater effects on rarer species, and tree size and temperature effects were specific to more common species. Interestingly, the effect of temperature on common species is in line with recent evidence from other Kingdoms, pointing to possible generality, and highlighting the importance of considering common species. Applying these methods to fungi has allowed us to identify the distinct ecological processes that structure rare and common taxa during community assembly. This has important implications for understanding the functional effects of community responses to environmental change.

Since Myanmar's transition to civilian rule in 2011, the use of smartphones has exploded. The ubiquitous use of social media, in particular Facebook, has had a well-publicized dark side as a platform for disseminating fake news and hate speech. With poor digital literacy skills, Myanmar users are susceptible to disinformation campaigns and other online dangers, particularly young people, the most prevalent users. The current study collected benchmarking data related to usage patterns and perceptions of social media among Myanmar youth living in conflict-affected areas, including internally displaced Rohingya Muslims whose voice is yet to be captured in social media research. A total of 231 participants from Rakhine and Kayah States aged 13-35 were surveyed about their use of social media and its impact on Myanmar society and their own lives. More than half of the young people sampled were heavy smartphone users, particularly Rohingya Muslims, who rely on social media for contact with society outside of their camps. Facebook was by far the most used app, however, private group chat-based platforms were also popular. A majority said that they check the accuracy of news they read on social media, however, most do so by checking other Facebook pages or asking friends or family. Overall, most young people thought that social media has both a positive impact and negative impact on their lives. This study adds to an emerging body of research into how Myanmar youth engage with social media, particularly regarding how they consume news of current events.

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Summary Mechanisms of diversification in fungi are relatively poorly known. Many ectomycorrhizal symbionts show preference for particular host genera or families, so host–symbiont selection may be an important driver of fungal diversification in ectomycorrhizal systems. However, whether ectomycorrhizal hosts and symbionts show correlated evolutionary patterns remains untested, and it is unknown whether fungal specialisation also occurs in systems dominated by hosts from the same genus. We use metabarcoding of ectomycorrhizal fungi collected with hyphal ingrowth bags from Nothofagus forests across southern New Zealand to investigate host–symbiont specialisation and correlated evolution. We examine how ectomycorrhizal communities differ between host species and look for patterns of host–symbiont cophylogeny. We found substantial differences in ectomycorrhizal communities associated with different host taxa, particularly between hosts from different subgenera (Lophozonia and Fuscospora), but also between more closely related hosts. Twenty‐four per cent of fungal taxa tested showed affiliations to particular hosts, and tests for cophylogeny revealed significant correlations between host relatedness and the fungal phylogeny that extended to substantial evolutionary depth. These results provide new evidence of correlated evolution in ectomycorrhizal systems, indicating that preferences among closely related host species may represent an important evolutionary driver for local lineage diversification in ectomycorrhizal fungi.

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The circumscription of the lichenized ascomycete genus Icmadophila Trevis. in the family Icmadophilaceae Triebel was investigated. Sequences of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region and large subunit of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nuLSU) were generated for the five Icmadophila species and additional members of Icmadophilaceae from the genera Dibaeis, Endocena, Knightiella, Siphula, Siphulella and Thamnolia. Phylogenetic analyses indicate that three Icmadophila species are closely related: the type, I. ericetorum (L.) Zahlbr., which is widespread in Eurasia and North America, I. aversa (Nyl.) Rambold & Hertel from Central and South America, and I. japonica (Zahlbr.) Rambold & Hertel, which is restricted to Far East Russia and Japan. The genus Knightiella Müll. Arg. is reinstated to accommodate I. splachnirima (Hook.f. & Taylor) D. J. Galloway emend. L. Ludw., which occurs in New Zealand and Australia. Two further species of Knightiella, K. eucalypti (Kantvilas) Kantvilas and K. queenslandica Kantvilas, are found to be unrelated to K. splachnirima, and are accommodated in two newly described genera, Knightiellastrum and Siphulopsis respectively. Knightiellastrum L. Ludw. & Kantvilas is characterized by a squamulose, erhizinate, whitish to pale grey thallus with a green, coccoid photobiont and by containing thamnolic acid. Siphulopsis Kantvilas & A. R. Nilsen is similarly characterized by an erhizinate, whitish to pale grey thallus, with a green, coccoid photobiont and containing thamnolic acid, but is instead fruticose. This study reveals considerable diversity within Australasian Icmadophilaceae; ongoing work in the Southern Hemisphere and tropical regions may reveal additional species in this family and clarify the relationships of these newly described genera.

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