Fungi represent one of the most diverse groups of organisms on the planet, with an essential role in ecosystem processes and functioning. The numbers of fungi have always been an intriguing topic with several review papers being written on the subject. Perhaps the starting point was that of paper of D.L. Hawksworth in 1991 in which he estimated that there were roughly 1.5 million species. In the last ten years, new DNA sequencing technologies have revolutionized studies of fungal taxonomy and diversity, leading to changes in the estimates of fungal species numbers ranging from 2.2 to 3.8 based on host association and 11.7 to 13.2 million species using high-throughput sequencing. However, only around 150,000 fungal species have been described to date, and it is believed that these organisms encompass a much higher diversity. Given the essential importance of fungi for ecosystem functioning, it is necessary to investigate fungal diversity using the most diverse methods and empirical demonstrations of the world fungal diversity and to address their roles in the different ecosystems.

真菌是地球上最多样化的生物群体之一，在生态系统过程和功能中发挥着至关重要的作用。真菌的数量一直是一个有趣的话题，有几篇关于这个主题的评论论文正在撰写。也许起点是 D.L. Hawksworth 在 1991 年的论文中，他估计大约有 150 万种。在过去十年中，新的 DNA 测序技术彻底改变了真菌分类学和多样性的研究，导致基于宿主关联的真菌物种数量估计从 2.2 到 3.8 个不等，使用高通量测序估计从 11.7 到 1320 万个物种不等。然而，迄今为止只有大约 150,000 种真菌被描述出来，人们认为这些生物包含更高的多样性。鉴于真菌对生态系统功能至关重要，有必要使用世界上最多样化的方法和世界真菌多样性的经验证明来研究真菌多样性，并解决它们在不同生态系统中的作用。