Fungi Stores a Third of Carbon From Fossil Fuel Emissions, New Study Reveals (phys.org) 33
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Phys.Org: Mycorrhizal fungi have been supporting life on land for at least 450 million years by helping to supply plants with soil nutrients essential for growth. In recent years, scientists have found that in addition to forming symbiotic relationships with nearly all land plants, these fungi are important conduits to transport carbon into soil ecosystems. In a meta-analysis published June 5 in the journal Current Biology, scientists estimate that as much as 13.12 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) fixed by terrestrial plants is allocated to mycorrhizal fungi annually -- roughly equivalent to 36% of yearly global fossil fuel emissions. Because 70% to 90% of land plants form symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi, researchers have long surmised that there must be a large amount of carbon moving into the soil through their networks.
Mycorrhizal fungi transfer mineral nutrients to and obtain carbon from their plant partners. These bi-directional exchanges are made possible by associations between fungal mycelium, the thread-like filamentous networks that make up the bulk of fungal biomass, and plant roots. Once transported underground, carbon is used by mycorrhizal fungi to grow a more extensive mycelium, helping them to explore the soil. It is also bound up in soil by the sticky compounds exuded by the fungi and can remain underground in the form of fungal necromass, which functions as a structural scaffold for soils. The scientists know that carbon is flowing through fungi, but how long it stays there remains unclear.
The paper is part of a global push to understand the role that fungi play in Earth's ecosystems. "We know that mycorrhizal fungi are vitally important ecosystem engineers, but they are invisible," says senior author Toby Kiers, a professor of evolutionary biology at Vrije University Amsterdam and co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). "Mycorrhizal fungi lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth, but we are just starting to understand how they actually work. There's still so much to learn." But there's a race against time to understand and protect these fungi. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that 90% of soils could be degraded by 2050, and fungi are left out of most conservation and environmental policy. Without the fertility and structure that soil provides, the productivity of both natural and crop plants will rapidly decline.
Mycorrhizal fungi transfer mineral nutrients to and obtain carbon from their plant partners. These bi-directional exchanges are made possible by associations between fungal mycelium, the thread-like filamentous networks that make up the bulk of fungal biomass, and plant roots. Once transported underground, carbon is used by mycorrhizal fungi to grow a more extensive mycelium, helping them to explore the soil. It is also bound up in soil by the sticky compounds exuded by the fungi and can remain underground in the form of fungal necromass, which functions as a structural scaffold for soils. The scientists know that carbon is flowing through fungi, but how long it stays there remains unclear.
The paper is part of a global push to understand the role that fungi play in Earth's ecosystems. "We know that mycorrhizal fungi are vitally important ecosystem engineers, but they are invisible," says senior author Toby Kiers, a professor of evolutionary biology at Vrije University Amsterdam and co-founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). "Mycorrhizal fungi lie at the base of the food webs that support much of life on Earth, but we are just starting to understand how they actually work. There's still so much to learn." But there's a race against time to understand and protect these fungi. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that 90% of soils could be degraded by 2050, and fungi are left out of most conservation and environmental policy. Without the fertility and structure that soil provides, the productivity of both natural and crop plants will rapidly decline.
And what about .. (Score:2)
the carbon absorbed by water dwelling plants and plankton?
Re:And what about .. (Score:5, Funny)
Water dwelling plants and plankton are fine. But everybody prefers a mushroom because he's such a fungi.
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the carbon absorbed by water dwelling plants and plankton?
The water dwelling plants and plankton are food for stuff which eats them and releases the carbon again.
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Pete isn't very trustworthy.
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Re: How about pete? (Score:5, Informative)
Side note: No more oil is generated from wood since fungi came to be. Up until (200million years ago?), when wood got covered, no mechanism existed to break it down. So when it got covered under lots of other stuff, time and pressure turned the dead wood into oil. But that process has long stopped because the wood now rots and gets digested.
That said, most oil is formed in a very slow process taking hunderds of thousands of years when marine animals die and sink to the bottom of the oceans, where they get covered and then time, pressure and heat take it from there.
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I thought a lot of carbon was stored as pete, and if left around long enough it can become coal.
Wrong, sir. It becomes Islay Scotch.
Re: It only stores it if we don't kill it off (Score:2)
But modern agriculture, instead of fostering these fertility-improving microorganisms, nukes the soil back to inert mineral granules by destroying the life in it via tilling, pesticides and synthesized
not only that (Score:3, Informative)
But fungi are also literally the very fabric of the universe, underpinning spacetime. And enable instant teleportation to any point in the universe.
Things you learn from Star Trek, these days.
Jesus Fucking Kirk.
Phaser me now, please!
Re: not only that (Score:2)
Now that you mention.. The Cosmic Web is much more like fungi than spider webs.
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There have been very few technobabble tropes in SF quite as jaw droopingly stupid as Discovery's "spore drive".
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There have been very few technobabble tropes in SF quite as jaw droopingly stupid as Discovery's "spore drive".
When they came out with that, I realized immediately that it was all about the mushrooms. Not sure if the writers injected them or just ate them....
I know what's going on here (Score:5, Funny)
There's obviously a pro-fungi lobby hard at work here trying to paint fungi in a positive light, but I've seen that documentary "The Last of Us", and I know what cordyceps has in store for us, so you can keep your pro-fungi propaganda, thanks all the same.
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Fuel does not come from fossils (Score:1, Informative)
it is propaganda nomenclature
Re: Fuel does not come from fossils (Score:2)
It, does, actually.
"predominantly from the fossils of marine life, such as algae and plankton"
https://www.livescience.com/34... [livescience.com]
mind your spelling (Score:2)
guys....
fungi is plural, a single organism or species will be a fungus. It comes from Latin, first declination.
So he is never a fungi, and fungi do not stores.
Where is Egon Spendler when we need him! (Score:2)
Huh, so they were right. (Score:1)
I first heard of this from potheads trying to improve their grow.
Fungi Stores Carbon? (Score:2)
Work harder (Score:1)
Me, me, me. Give the money to me. (Score:2)
My area of study is just what you need to solve the world's problems. Give me more money and I will fix everything for you.
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Great. One more thing. (Score:2)
Throw it on the stack, somewhere between the carrying capacity of the ocean and the permafrost sink. If I find I have the leftover resources to worry about that, then I'll get to it.
The fungus among us (Score:2)
Maybe we should start wearing mushrooms around our necks, to ward off unhealthy increases in CO2. And garlic as well, in case the mushrooms don't work and Vampires thrive in a world with higher CO2 levels.
Great for the fungi. (Score:2)
What about the boring guy. Does he do anything to help?
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What about the boring guy. Does he do anything to help?
He is trying to get to mars.