Fungi act as decomposers, symbionts, and pathogens, and in these roles help regulate carbon cycling; greenhouse gas fluxes; plant production, growth, and mortality; and a host of other ecosystem properties. Yet until recently our understanding of large-scale patterns in their biodiversity has been fragmented. Building on the meeting theme of “Harnessing the ecological data revolution” this session strives to provide a multifaceted view of how high-throughput sequencing methods, integration of global fungal collections data, and online accessibility of fungal sequence data have provided a novel window into the patterns and drivers of fungal diversity. This session will explore the range of approaches and data sources being used to answer key large-scale questions regarding the patterns and regulation of fungal biodiversity at large (continental to global) scales. These include large collaborative sequencing efforts designed to take advantage of networks of collaborators, existing studies and environmental gradients, integrating ecosystem science with fungal ecology (Lamit); the collation, curation and analysis of extensive fungal collection datasets with the goal of extracting key information at large spatial and temporal scales about fungal-environment relationships (Andrew); mining of existing online sequence and environmental datasets to explore large-scale patterns and use that information for ecological forecasting (Averill); and new statistical approaches for exploring community assembly at continental scales (Qin). All approaches explore the importance of biotic and abiotic environmental drivers for predicting fungal diversity and community composition. Additionally, we explore the potential for ecological forecasting of the impacts of climate and other environmental factors on fungal communities, using forest inventory and paleo-ecological records. Furthermore, we will explore new approaches for modeling community assembly. For example, joint species distribution models, or JSDMs, are a new tool that allows for the simultaneous investigation of how environmental variables and species interactions structure ecological communities. We will explore how these tools help uncover fungal community assembly rules across broad environmental and vegetation gradients at continental scales. Thus we cover the range of current approaches for gathering data, and look at their application to large scale pattern analysis in microbial communities. The speakers will be charged with defining the strengths and limitations of their various approaches and considering opportunities for methodological integration with the approaches of other speakers.