There’s a Global Network of Fungi Under Your Feet. This Is the First Complete Map

Beneath the Earth's surface lies an extraordinary underground fungal network of almost unimaginable scale. An international team of researchers has, for the first time, produced a global map of this vast mycorrhizal network—the system of fungal filaments that forms mutually beneficial partnerships with plants across the planet. They estimate that the network stretches for roughly 110 quadrillion kilometers in total, nearly 1 billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun. The findings were published in Science.

Beneath Your Feet

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) form underground networks that support plant life and help regulate the Earth's climate. Through microscopic filaments known as hyphae, these fungi establish symbiotic relationships with plant roots, supplying water and nutrients in exchange for carbon produced through photosynthesis. The scale of this phenomenon is enormous: Current estimates suggest that about 70 percent of all plant species depend on these mycorrhizal partnerships for their survival.

...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to wired.com. To see the full text click HERE