Who are the marine fungi?

Fungi are widespread throughout marine habitats. Mostmarine fungi are microscopic, either microfungi, yeasts,or swimming zoospore-producing groups such as theChytridiomycota (‘the chytrids’). The macroscopic exceptions are the marine lichens along coastlines. Marinemushrooms are yet to be discovered. The functionalroles of marine fungi include parasites (e.g., infectingphytoplankton; Hassett & Gradinger, 2016), saprotrophsrecycling organic matter (e.g., degrading phytoplanktonproduced polysaccharides; Cunliffe et al., 2017) and insymbiosis with other marine life (e.g., seaweeds;Bonthond et al., 2022). Here, I briefly summarize my perspective of marine fungi with an emphasis on identity.Looking into the crystal ball, I see a possible near futurefor marine mycology highlighting some conceptual andtechnical developments.