Underground maps reveal 90% of mycorrhizal fungal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas

There’s a surprising climate solution right under your feet

Like so much of an iceberg is hidden underwater, much of a tree is hidden underground. While the trunk and branches and leaves sequester planet-warming carbon dioxide, trees and other plants have long formed subterranean alliances with mycorrhizal fungi, which intertwine with their roots to establish a mutually beneficial trade network. In exchange for helping everything from oaks to redwoods find water and essential nutrients like nitrogen, the…

New Study Reveals Mycorrhizal Fungal Hotspots and Their Lack of Protections - Inside Climate News

Fungal communities hidden underground support 80 percent of land plants around the world and store 13 billion tons of carbon annually. But new research mapping their locations reveal few concentrations of the vital fungi are protected.

Underground maps reveal 90% of mycorrhizal fungal biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected areas

Using more than 2.8 billion fungal sequences sampled from 130 countries, scientists map the biodiversity of Earth's underground mycorrhizal fungal communities.

Most of Earth’s critical underground fungus is unprotected

First global map of mushrooms that form beneficial relationships with plant roots reveals 90% live outside of conservation areas

Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected

Mycorrhizal fungi are ecosystem engineers that sustain plant life and help regulate Earth’s biogeochemical cycles1–3. However, in contrast to plants and animals, the global distribution of mycorrhizal fungal biodiversity is largely unknown, which limits our ability to monitor and protect key underground ecosystems4,5. Here we trained machine-learning algorithms on a global dataset of 25,000 geolocated soil samples comprising >2.8 billion fungal …