Earth’s underground network of fungi needs urgent protection, say researchers | Fungi

The underground mushroom network underlying the planet’s ecosystems needs an urgent conservation action for politicians, said a research organization.

Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) scientists created the first high -resolution biodiversity cards of the land underground mycorrhizal ecosystems.

Research, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, revealed that 90% of the hot dots of mycorrhizal mushrooms were in unprotected ecosystems. The loss of ecosystems could lead to discounts of carbon flap, productivity of crops and resilience of ecosystems to climatic extremes.

Mycorrhizal mushrooms have “remained in the dark, despite the extraordinary ways they support life on earth,” said Dr. Toby Kiers, executive director of SPUN.

“They roam the nutrients, store carbon,” supported plants and made ground. When we disturb these critical ecosystem engineers, forestry regeneration slows down, crops fail and biodiversity above the ground begins to crash … 450m years ago, there were no plants on earth and began to support human life Mycorhizale.

“If we have a healthy fungal network, we will have greater agricultural productivity, larger and beautiful flowers, and can protect plants against pathogens.”

Mycorrhizal mushrooms are on plant roots and help regulate the climate and earth ecosystems. Its underground networks offer plants essential nutrients, while drawing more than 13 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year in soils – equivalent to around a third of the world’s emissions from fossil fuel.

SPUN launched the initiative in 2021 alongside organizations such as Globalfungi, Fungi Foundation, the Global Soil MyCobiome Consortium and researchers from around the world to map the underground network of mycorrhizal mushrooms.

By using automatic learning techniques on a set of data containing more than 2.8 billion fungal samples from 130 countries, scientists were able to predict the mycorrhizal diversity at 1 km² Scale through the planet.

They discovered that only 9.5% of these hot points in fungal biodiversity were in existing protected areas, revealing huge conservation gaps. The Coast of Ghana has proven to be a world hotspot for mushrooms, but with the coastal of the country eroding at a rate of 2 meters per year, scientists fear that this crucial biodiversity will be washed in the sea.

This research marks the first large -scale scientific scientific application of the global mapping initiative, which “are more than scientific tools – they can help guide the future of conservation,” said Dr. Michael Van Nuland. “Given the impact of these fungal symbiosis on the health and the functioning of Earth ecosystems, continuing to ignore them could be an extremely missed opportunity.”

Nuland has said that fungi react negatively to human stressors, and without approaching the possible loss of these vital fungi, we could lose our ability to develop new natural climatic solutions.

The use of land is an important cause of mycorrhizal fungal degradation, and it is “frustrating that no action has been taken to prioritize conservation,” said Kiers. “Mushrooms are necessary for agricultural productivity and human health.”

These fungal ecosystems were largely invisible in law and politics, said César Rodríguez-Garavito, professor of law and director of the faculty of the program of life more than human (butterfly) at La Nyu’s School of Law. “”[The data is] Incredibly important in strengthening the law and policy on climate change and the loss of biodiversity in all the underground ecosystems of the earth. »»

The results are accessible by the interactive tool of the SCUN underground atlas for conservation groups, researchers and decision -makers to identify the hot spots that require intervention.

With more than 400 scientists and 96 underground explorers from 79 countries, the international team of SPUN samples the underground ecosystems most difficult to access the earth, especially in Mongolia, in Bhutan, Pakistan and Ukraine.

SPUN is looking for new employees and funding to scale its Mycorhizales fungal cards, which only cover 0.001% of the earth surface. The expansion of its fungal cards would guide decision -makers to start taking advantage of mycorrhizal systems.

The preservation and protection of mycorrhizal fungi could help resolve some of the world’s largest challenges – the decline in biodiversity, climate change and the drop in food productivity, said Dr. Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist of the World Fund for Nature, who added that he had a direct advantage to people.