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- 🌱 Mycorrhizal fungi help store an estimated 13.12 gigatonnes of CO₂ around the world (Pontarp et al., 2022).
- 🧠 Fungal networks act as underground ways to share messages and nutrients across whole natural systems.
- ⚠️ Current policies about Earth's warming do not account for below-ground carbon storage by fungi.
- 🌾 Regenerative farming methods helped by fungi can boost yields and lock carbon in soil.
- 🌳 Forests with lots of mycorrhizal fungi are better able to recover from Earth's warming and store more carbon.
The Problem of Earth Getting Hotter and The Search for Natural Carbon Stores
Climate change is accelerating, with atmospheric CO₂ now surpassing 420 parts per million—a level not seen for millions of years. Human activities like burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial farming are the main drivers. To prevent the worst impacts, scientists stress the need to both cut emissions and expand carbon sinks—natural systems that capture and store carbon from the atmosphere.
Traditionally, forests, oceans, and peatlands have been key carbon sinks, but their capacity is declining due to deforestation, warming seas, and soil degradation. As these natural systems weaken, researchers are turning to a surprising and often overlooked ally: fungi. Beyond their ecological role, mushrooms can also be cultivated at home in mushroom grow bags, giving growers a chance to better understand how fungi work and their potential role in building more sustainable food systems.
Fungi 101: From Decomposers to Natural System Builders
Fungi are very different and old living things. They are much more than the mushrooms we see above ground. These life forms include molds, yeasts, and a huge range of thread-like fungi. They live in involved relationships where they help each other, live off others, or break down dead things. Fungi make up over 90% of the living material in some forest soils. Still, people often do not talk about them when discussing natural systems.
We will break down the three main types of fungi found in nature:
- Saprophytic fungi break down dead organic material. They do important work in moving nutrients and making soil.
- Parasitic fungi feed on living hosts. They often make plants sick or cause rot. But they also help control natural systems.
- Mycorrhizal fungi, the main point when talking about Earth's warming, form relationships where both sides benefit with plants. These fungi grow into plant root systems. They trade soil nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen for carbon made by the plant.
This last group—mycorrhizal fungi—is very important. Their underground networks link plants together in a natural network. They help control a core part of how carbon moves on Earth.
Mycorrhizal Fungi: The Hidden Helpers of Carbon Capture
When plants photosynthesize, they change CO₂ from the air into sugars. They use these sugars to grow. But about 20–30% of these sugars do not stay in the plants. They go into the soil as plant secretions to feed fungal partners. Then, mycorrhizal fungi bring water and hard-to-reach minerals. These minerals are needed for plants to be healthy. This trade does more than make plants healthier; it moves carbon into the soil.
This carbon, now inside fungal networks, gets built into fungal cell walls. These walls are mostly made of chitin. Chitin is stable and does not break down easily. This means the carbon held within fungi stays buried. It can stay there for decades or even centuries.
The Pontarp et al. (2022) study found that mycorrhizal fungi are responsible for storing an amazing 13.12 gigatonnes of CO₂ around the world. To give you an idea, that is more than all the annual CO₂ emissions of the United States and China combined. Clearly, fungi are not just minor helpers; they are major players in storing carbon.
Underground Carbon Stores: How Fungi Lock Carbon in Soil
Mycorrhizal fungi make underground networks, which are made of thin threads called hyphae. These hyphae reach deep into soil clumps that are too small for roots to get to alone. These threads stretch for kilometers in every handful of soil. They create complex paths that move and store carbon.
What makes this system very good as a long-term carbon store is how well it lasts due to its makeup. When fungal tissues die, the carbon inside them does not just turn into CO₂. Instead, it sticks to soil in lasting organic forms, helping make humus. This organic matter makes soil more fertile and improves its structure. It also stops soil from washing away. And most importantly, it does not easily return to the air.
And then, fungal networks can affect which tiny living things grow well in soil. This changes the soil food web more and decides how much carbon stays or leaves. Simple carbon stores like tree trunks are different. Fungal networks always grow, change, and work with their surroundings. This makes their ability to store carbon better able to change and recover.
The “Wood Wide Web”: Showing Underground Fungal Networks
The "Wood Wide Web" is more than just a catchy name. It shows one of nature’s smartest ways to communicate. Through this network, nutrients are traded. Also, trees can share messages about dry spells, bug attacks, or other problems. For example, a tree under bug attack may release warning chemicals. These travel through fungal threads to nearby trees, telling them to get stronger.
This web also helps move limited resources around. A larger tree might share extra sugars with smaller seedlings through a shared mycorrhizal network. This helps more plants live and creates a stronger forest. In some cases, dying trees even send energy into the network before they die. This is a kind of natural way of sharing.
By helping with water and nutrient access and linking different kinds of trees, mycorrhizal networks help make natural systems stable. This also makes forests better able to store CO₂ over time. Cutting down forests or harming soil can break or weaken these very useful networks. This makes the whole natural system work less well and less able to recover.
Groups like the GlobalFungi database are listing soil fungi from around the world. They are making a collection that could help scientists better understand how carbon moves around the world and how healthy natural systems are.
Forests and Fungi: A Carbon-Saving Partnership
Healthy forests and lots of fungi go hand-in-hand. From northern woods to tropical rainforests, most trees rely on a relationship where both benefit with fungi to live, grow, and reproduce. In return, trees give fungi a constant supply of carbon for energy.
This partnership becomes more and more important under stress from Earth's warming. Research shows forests made stronger by strong fungal networks are better able to handle dry spells, disease, and temperature changes. These forests are more likely to keep their carbon even in bad conditions. This stops CO₂ from going back into the air.
Some types of mycorrhizal fungi—especially ectomycorrhizal species found in many conifers and hardwoods—may be very good at storing carbon. These fungi form thick covers around root tips. They add a lot to organic carbon layers in the soil. Forests with mostly ectomycorrhizal fungi may store more carbon. This makes them important places to protect and bring back to health.
Fungi in Farming: Restoring Agriculture with a Mycorrhizal Boost
Industrial farming has greatly harmed tiny life in the soil. Methods like deep tilling, using too many synthetic fertilizers, and growing only one crop break up fungal networks. They also turn soil carbon back into CO₂. This harms soil health and speeds up Earth's warming.
Restoring agriculture changes this approach by putting soil life first. These methods—such as no-till farming, cover cropping, and composting—help rebuild fungal networks. Adding fungi to soil or rotating crops with fungi-friendly plants (such as legumes and clovers) can bring soil natural systems back. The result? Fields that need fewer chemicals, hold more water, and store more carbon.
A growing number of farmers now see fungi not as pests, but as partners. In some cases, farmers using restoring methods have seen increases in soil organic matter by over 1% per year. This means tons of carbon stored below ground.
Supporting such methods is not only good science; it’s a good plan for Earth's warming.
The Unused Power: Fungi Still Missing from Policies for Earth's Warming
Fungi help natural systems and with Earth's warming in a huge way. Still, they are almost never in most world and country plans for Earth's warming. Carbon credit systems, for example, usually give credit for visible carbon above ground (trees, plant matter). But they ignore what is happening underground.
This is a big thing we are missing. Soil carbon makes up over 70% of carbon on land. Fungi are important in how it moves, is stored, and stays stable. If we do not see this in carbon tracking, we risk not fully seeing how much carbon nature can store. And we risk missing important chances to act.
Groups like the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) are pushing to include fungal natural systems in protecting many types of life and in models for Earth's warming. Adding them could greatly change how we plan land use, value natural system benefits, and plans to slow Earth's warming.
What the Research Says: Main Results from World Studies
The Pontarp et al. (2022) study is a very important study in fungal science for Earth's warming. It combines satellite data, soil analysis, and fungal mapping. This suggests one clear conclusion: we must make our models for Earth's warming wider to add how fungal carbon moves.
Other studies show similar results. Analysis from tropical forest research shows that different kinds of fungi greatly help natural systems recover. In Arctic areas, warming permafrost and changing fungal groups could affect methane release. This could make Earth's warming worse or better, based on how tiny life forms act.
The scientific community is working fast to understand these connections more. But one thing is clear: ignoring fungi in environmental models is not just a bad idea; it could lead to disaster.
Citizen Mycology and Getting Involved with Earth's Warming
You do not need a lab coat to join the movement for underground life. More and more people are using DIY fungi projects to help things last and recover in their communities. From backyard mushroom kits to composting with fungal additions, small actions are adding up.
City gardens, cooperatives, and even schools are teaching how to grow places that are good for mycorrhizal fungi. Building local fungal knowledge helps people connect again with the natural systems they live in. At the same time, it helps with solutions for Earth's warming.
Zombie Mushrooms offers grow kits. These introduce people to the good looks and usefulness of fungi in everyday life. As you grow mushrooms, you are also growing awareness. This is an important step in changing how society acts to use more restoring methods.
Protecting Fungi and Many Types of Life
Protecting many types of life is not just about big, well-known animals like pandas or orangutans. Soil fungi are invisible to the eye. But they are just as needed. Maybe even more so when it comes to keeping Earth's warming stable. Still, these organisms face threats from losing their homes, pollution, new species that take over, and industrial growth.
Cutting down trees is not just chopping them down. It is also removing the soil layers fungi need. Wildfires, made worse by Earth's warming, can kill life in soils. This destroys fungal groups that took hundreds of years to establish. Rebuilding these networks takes time, money, and care for nature.
Protection groups must look at things in a wider way to include life underground. Funding for fungal protection, setting up protected soil areas, and building fungal seed banks could be very important next steps.
Problems and Unknowns in Fungal Carbon Storage
Fungal natural systems are known to be hard to study. We can measure trees. We can weigh crop yields. But underground fungi work in a complex net of things relying on each other. Their activity changes by region, soil type, season, and host plant.
Main problems include:
- No common tools to check fungi.
- Differences in how well fungi work in different areas.
- Not enough data in areas with lots of carbon like peatlands or mangroves.
- How Earth's warming feedback loops affect what fungi do.
Despite these problems, new technology in DNA sequencing, remote sensing, and soil microbiology is quickly helping us learn what we do not know.
Fungi and the Future of Slowing Earth's Warming
Imagine if a percentage of carbon credits worldwide were given for rebuilding fungal natural systems. Or if drones could spread fungal spores into damaged areas, making natural regrowth faster. Or biotech companies created fungi just for quickly making carbon stable.
These are not fantasy. They are things that could happen soon. Adding fungi to solutions for Earth's warming could help turn damaged land into places that store carbon. It could turn plant waste into compost with lots of fungi. And it could even make carbon-holding materials from fungi for packaging and building.
Fungi provide a special chance: they change death into life, waste into something useful, and carbon into soil. They are not only a tool for cutting emissions. They are a guide to living in a way that restores things.
FAQ
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How do fungi help fight climate change?
Fungi form underground networks (mycorrhizal fungi) that store carbon in soil, improve soil structure, and help plants grow by transferring nutrients. -
What types of farming practices support fungal carbon storage?
Practices like no-till farming, cover cropping, composting, and avoiding deep soil disturbance help fungal networks thrive and keep carbon locked in soil. -
Can fungi really store large amounts of CO₂ long-term?
Yes. Studies show fungal cell walls made of stable materials like chitin can trap carbon for decades or even centuries, especially in healthy ecosystems. -
Why are fungi underrepresented in climate policies and carbon credits?
Because underground fungal processes are harder to measure, map, and quantify compared to trees or visible carbon sinks, so they’re often excluded from regulation and compensation schemes. -
How can everyday growers contribute to fungal carbon capture?
By composting, reducing soil disturbance, using mushroom cultivation (like home grow kits), and promoting fungi-friendly landscaping to support soil health and carbon sequestration.
Make Fungi Part of How You Live for the Planet
Supporting fungi-friendly systems does not mean making big changes to your life. You can start in your backyard, on your windowsill, or in your local advocacy group. Choose restoring products, use less synthetic fertilizers, learn about soil fungi, or volunteer with a local permaculture project.
Every spore matters. Share this knowledge with others and become a voice for the underground system that keeps our planet alive.
Look at our Zombie Mushrooms grow kits to start growing fungi and growing your part in action for Earth's warming. This movement is rich, hidden, and growing—right below our feet. Are you ready to join it?
Citations
Pontarp, M., Pellissier, L., Goudet, J., Rillig, M. C., Van Der Heijden, M. G. A., Amend, A. S., ... & Peay, K. (2022). Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi as key actors in global carbon cycling. Current Biology, 32(10), R421–R423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.047
