This mushroom soil stores a third of the world’s CO2 emissions from combustion fossil fuels, A finding that reveals that these organisms are key to neutralizing climate change-causing gases and achieving the long-awaited ‘net zero’ balance.
The UN’s “net zero” goal includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions to as low as possible, with the rest being reabsorbed by the ocean and forests.
Study conducted by scientists from the University of Sheffield (UK) and published in the journal Current Biologystates that there are mycorrhizal fungi (those that form symbiotic relationships with plants). Trap up to 36 percent of global fossil fuel emissions underground (about 13 gigatons), more than China produces in a year.
An extensive global underground network
Fungi have formed vast underground networks for at least 450 million years. It plays an important role under the soil of meadows, forests, roads, gardens or houses. not only when it comes to storing carbon and keeping the planet cooler, but also for biodiversity.
Until now, it was known that fungi can store carbon thanks to their symbiotic relationship with almost all plants, but it was not known how much carbon they could capture.
After publishing data from the study, the authors asked policymakers to consider the value of these organisms in policies and actions for the conservation and preservation of biodiversity.
The UN estimates that 90% of the soil at the current rate could be degraded by 2050.something catastrophic, not only for stopping climate change and rising temperatures, but also for the productivity of crops and plants.
As Katie Field, Professor of Plant-Soil Processes at the University of Sheffield and co-author of the study, explains, “Mycorrhizal fungi are a blind spot in carbon modeling, conservation and restoration, but the numbers we discovered are staggering.”
soil destruction
“Soil ecosystems are being destroyed by agriculture, development and other industries at an alarming rate, but the wider impacts of disturbed soil communities are not fully understood” and in doing so “We sabotaged our efforts to limit global warming. and undermining the ecosystems on which we depend.”
That’s why Field, “More needs to be done to protect these underground networks.: We knew they were essential for biodiversity, but now we have evidence that they are crucial to the health of our planet.”
researchers they are now studying how long soil fungi store carbonAs well as continuing to analyze the role played by fungi in the world’s ecosystems.
For lead author Toby Kiers, of Vrije University in Amsterdam and co-founder of the Association for the Conservation of Subterranean Networks, “this work is part of a global effort to understand the role fungi play in Earth’s ecosystems.”
“Mycorrhizal fungi are at the base of the food webs that support most of life on Earth., but we’re just beginning to understand how they actually work. We still have a lot to learn,” he warns.
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