Saccharomycotina yeasts defy long- standing macroecological patterns

The Saccharomycotina yeasts ("yeasts" hereafter) are a fungal clade of scientific, ecorecords and 96 environmental variables to infer global distribution maps at -1 km2 resolution for 186 yeast species (-15% of described species from 75% of orders) and to test environmental drivers of yeast biogeography and macroecology. We found that predicted yeast diversity hotspots occur in mixed montane forests in temperate climates. Diversity in vegetation type and topography were some of the greatest predictors of yeast species richness, suggesting that microhabitats and environmental clines are key to yeast diversity. We further found that range limits in yeasts are significantly influenced by carbon niche breadth and range overlap with other yeast species, with carbon specialists and species in high- diversity environments exhibiting reduced geographic ranges. Finally, yeasts contravene many long- standing macroecological principles, including the latitudinal diversity gradient, temperature- dependent species richness, and a positive relationship between latitude and range size (Rapoport's rule). These results unveil how the environment governs the global diversity and distribution of species in the yeast subphylum. These high- resolution models of yeast species distributions will facilitate the prediction of economically relevant and emerging pathogenic species under current and future climate scenarios.