Mycorrhizal fungi – a huge organism that has been living underground in symbiosis with plant roots for 400 million years – probably play an extremely important role in the global carbon cycle. Scientists have found that fungi are responsible for the release or transport of gigantic amounts of carbon dioxide from plants.
This is evidenced by a new study published in the journal Current Biology. Scientists already knew about the exchange of nutrients and water between plants and mycorrhizal fungi, but did not even know what role they could play in cleansing our planet.
Scientists have found that mycorrhizal fungi are actively involved in the global carbon cycle, through which the Earth recycles carbon between the atmosphere, ocean, soil, rocks and living organisms.
The discovery, scientists say, could help update our carbon models, a key tool in an era of climate crisis.
The study analyzed nearly 200 mycorrhizal fungal datasets from over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers. As a result, scientists were able to understand what the quantitative effect of fungi on global soil carbon pools is.
Mycorrhizal fungi are responsible for releasing or transporting 13 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide from plants, said Cathy Field, co-author of the study and Professor of Plant and Ground Processes at the University of Sheffield. Which, according to the scientist, is simply “a huge amount of carbon.”
She explained that 13 gigatonnes is the equivalent of 36% of annual global fossil fuel emissions, or more than all of China emits in a year.
So, as Field explained in the Inverse comment, mushrooms play a very important role in how plants get rid of carbon, and without them, humanity would probably be in big trouble. In the past, the role of fungi has been overlooked as research has favored terrestrial plants.
“That’s largely because these incredible organisms exist in underground filamentous networks that are mostly invisible to the naked eye,” Field said.
She also noted that this study means that such underground systems need to be protected from agriculture, construction and other industries.
“When we disrupt ancient life support systems in the soil, we sabotage our efforts to limit global warming and undermine the ecosystems we depend on. More needs to be done to protect these underground networks – we already knew they were important for biodiversity. even more evidence that they are critical to the health of our planet,” Field said.
However, the scientists caution that their study is somewhat incomplete because they did not investigate whether mycorrhizal fungi help the soil store carbon and not release it to the atmosphere. Namely, the return process has a key impact on global warming. This will be the focus of the following studies.
However, this study is still important because it allows scientists to better understand how much greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, we can emit before the planet warms even more.
“Now we know that the distribution of carbon will depend on where certain plant and fungal species occur in different ecosystems. This data will be useful to improve global carbon models,” said study co-author and environmentalist Michael Van Nuland.
Earlier, GLOBAL HAPPENINGS also talked about the fact that solar panels could lead to an environmental disaster on Earth.
Source: Obozrevatel
I am a technology author with 8 years of experience in journalism. My writing covers the latest technology advancements and trends, drawing on my expertise in news journalism and social media platforms. I have contributed to major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Reuters.
