There’s an Unfathomably Huge Network of Fungi Lurking Beneath the Earth

Our hidden fungal networks could reach beyond the solar system

This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultrathin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun, according to new research published in Science on June 11.  These funga…

There’s an Unfathomably Huge Network of Fungi Lurking Beneath the Earth

Deep beneath your feet, there is a vast, sprawling, unfathomably huge network of fungi that, when laid end to end, would extend for a mind-boggling 68 quadrillion miles. According to a new study published in Science, researchers have created the first global map of Earth’s massive underground fungal network, a tangled web of tendrils so long that it would stretch nearly a billion times the distance from Earth to the Sun. It’s so big that compari…

A Hidden Universe: Underground Fungi Could Stretch to the Sun Nearly a Billion Times

Below the surface on which all our human feats and follies unfold, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form a vastly interwoven matrix.