These fungi are a more fundamental part of planthood than leaves, wood, fruit, flowers or even roots. Today, most plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi – from the Greek words for fungus ( mykes) and root ( rhiza) – which weave themselves through roots, provide plants with crucial nutrients, defend them from disease and link them in shared networks sometimes referred to as the “wood wide web”. This association transformed the planet and its atmosphere – the evolution of plant-fungal partnerships coincided with a 90% reduction in the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide. About 500m years ago, fungi facilitated the movement of aquatic plants on to land, fungal mycelium serving as plant root systems for tens of millions of years until plants could evolve their own. These networks should be regarded as a global public good to be mapped, protected and restored as a matter of urgency.įungi lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth. This is a problem: the destruction of underground fungal networks accelerates both climate change and biodiversity loss and interrupts vital global nutrient cycles.
But climate change strategies, conservation agendas and restoration efforts overlook fungi and focus overwhelmingly on aboveground ecosystems.
Much of it remains in the soil, making underground ecosystems the stable store of 75% of all terrestrial carbon. Through fungal activity, carbon floods into the soil, where it supports intricate food webs – about 25% of all of the planet’s species live underground.
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