National Forest Inventories (NFIs) collect and provide a large amount of information regarding the forest volume, carbon stocks, vitality, biodiversity, non-wood forest products and their changes. Forest stands variables data are paramount to understanding their composition, especially on those related with understory characteristics and the coverage of species according to canopy layers; they are essential to assess biodiversity and to support forest management. At the same time, these inventories allow the development of harmonized forest descriptions beyond the national scale. This study aims to develop a homogeneous characterization of the Iberian Peninsula’s forests, in order to classify and identify the forest types. For this purpose, harmonized data from NFIs of Portugal and Spain were used to assess the composition of species, dominance and the percentage of cover for each species in a vertical space defined by seven canopy layers. Using the “K-means” clustering algorithm, a set of clusters was identified and georeferenced using forest polygons from land use and cover maps of both countries. The interpretation and description of the clusters lead to the establishment of 28 forest types that characterize all of the Iberian Peninsula forests. Each forest area has been described through one of the forest types and their relation with other ecological characteristics of the stands was analyzed. Shrubs formations are generally widely distributed in the forest area of the Iberian Peninsula, however their abundance in terms of cover is lower in comparison with tree species. Around 71% of the forest types are dominated by trees, mainly species from the genera Pinus and Quercus, and 21% are dominated by shrub formations with species of Ulex spp., Cytisus spp., and Cistus spp. The Quercus ilex s.l. L. and Pinus pinaster Aiton are the common species of importance for both NFIs. The results represent a powerful and homogenous multi-use tool describing the Iberian Peninsula’s forestlands with applications on landscape analysis, forest management and conservation. This information can be used for comparisons at larger scales, allowing cross-border analysis in relation to various aspects, such as hazards and wildfires, as well as management and conservation of forest biodiversity. The developed method is adaptable to an updated dataset from more recent NFIs and to other study areas.

Lettuce plants were grown in a greenhouse affected by the fungal pathogen Fusarium oxysporum to test the effects on plant metabolomics by different organic treatments. Three foliar application treatments were applied: a commercial compost tea made of aerobically fermented plant organic matter, a pure lyophilized microalga Artrospira platensis, commonly named spirulina, and the same microalga previously exposed during its culture to a natural uptake from medium enriched with F. oxysporum fragmented DNA (NAT). The experiment is the first attempt to observe in field conditions, the use and effects of a natural microbial library as a carrier of pathogenic fungal DNA for disease control. Untargeted NMR metabolomics and chemometrics showed that foliar organic application significantly reduced fumaric and formic acids, aromatic amino acids, and nucleosides, while increasing ethanolamine. A strong decrease in phenolic acids and an increase in citric acid and glutamine were specifically observed in the NAT treatment. It is noteworthy that the exposure of a known biostimulant microalga to fungal DNA in its culture medium was sufficient to induce detectable changes in the metabolomic profiles of the fertilized plants. These findings deserve further investigation to assess the potential relevance of the presented approach in the field of crop biostimulation and biocontrol of plant pathogens.

Aim: Fungal 'fairy rings' (FRs) are regular bands of vegetation caused by a centrifugal expansion of fungal mycelia. It is well established that FR fungi affect both soil chemistry and microbiome, but nothing is known about the distribution of these patterns at the regional scale. Here, we assess the abundance and occurrences of different FR shapes i.e. rings, arcs and rotors, and explore their association with geomorphology and climate. Location:The Apennine Mountains, 300-km latitudinal gradient along the Italian Peninsula.Taxon: Basidiomycetous fungi.Methods: High-resolution freely available images were gathered to study FR shapes and distribution in the Apennine region of Italy. First, 12 mountains with different elevations and geomorphology were studied to assess the colonial density and relative distribution of FR type. FR distribution and shape and size of additional 616 FRs were studied in 61 study sites and relationship with selected climatic and topographic variables were assessed using different modelling approaches.Results: Overall, 1163 FR structures were found across the study area. Arcs were the most common shape followed by rings. Rotors were rare, accounting for less than 2% of all observations. Fungal colony density varied largely both among and within sites, averaging 6.7 arcs, 2.2 rings and only 0.1 rotors per ha. On average, arcs (18.8 m) were similar in size compared to rotors (18.4 m) whilst rings were smaller (11.7 m). Arcs presented a higher frequency of occurrence on steeper slopes whilst rings were mostly found on flat and moderate slopes. FRs occurred within the altitudinal range between 546 m and 2148 m a.s.l., corresponding to temperatures between 3.4 and 12.7°C and rainfall between 1100 and 1300 mm per year.Main Conclusions: FRs are common elements of the Apennine grassland landscape where they may contribute to the maintenance of plant and microbial diversity. Better systematic identification of the fungal species involved in the formation of FRs is required. Further research that combines long-term field manipulative experiments and

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