Vast networks of microscopic, underground fungi serve a crucial role in Earth’s ecosystems — and there’s a lot we don’t know about them. Now, a team of scientists is launching a first-of-its-kind effort to map the world’s mycorrhizal fungi.
More than a quarter of Earth’s species live in soils underground, including the fungal networks that help store huge quantities of carbon, provide most plants with the majority of the nutrients they need to survive and allow the plants to receive important signals from others.
Kiers described tangles of mycorrhizal fungi as a “continuous pipe system” that branches, fuses and flows with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus. Instead, through fungal networks, “trees may really be cooperating as a family unit,” Averill said. More research is needed to better understand the nature of the relationships.
“We really didn’t have tools to see the diversity and types of organisms living underground,” Averill said. “Now it feels like we’re inside the soil.”
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