Amazing and reassuring research. There is a global network taking care of the planet. We just need to get out of the way.

'Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form symbioses with ~70% of plant species, building hyphal networks that exchange nutrients for host-derived carbon. These tubular networks move ~1 billion metric tons of carbon per year into Earth’s soils... We estimate that global topsoils contain 1.10 × 1017 ± 0.13 × 1017 SD kilometers of living hyphae, weighing ~300 ± 60 SD megatons, ~4- to 6-fold the biomass of humans. Our uncertainty analyses identified undersampled ecosystems that require additional empirical attention.' - Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN)

#SPUN #fungi #mychorriza #ecology #Gaia #science #soilscience

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu4373

This is really beautiful, interesting and important at the same time.

SPUN: *A hidden infrastructure*

➡️ Underground networks

"Beneath our feet lie networks of invisible ecosystem engineers: arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.

These fungi form trading relationships with more than 70% of plant species, building networks of tubular cells called hyphae that extend the surface area of root systems up to a hundred-fold.

Collectively, these networks comprise one of Earth's circulatory systems." ➡️

📖 https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth/story/a-hidden-infrastructure

🌐 https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth/story/mycorrhizal-infrastructure-map

#biology #mycorrhizal #mycorrhizalFungi #fungi #SPUN #VrijeUniversiteitAmsterdam #VUamsterdam #science #cartography

Erste Weltkarte unterirdischer Pilznetzwerke

Arbuskuläre #Mykorrhiza-Pilze (AM-Pilze) sind Bodenorganismen, die weltweit verbreitet sind, aber keine oberirdischen Fruchtkörper – sprich keine Schwammerl – bilden. Ihr gesamtes Leben spielt sich unterirdisch ab. Im Boden gehen sie mit den Wurzeln von Pflanzen eine Art Tauschhandel ein.

„Bei dieser Symbiose geben Pflanzen #Kohlenstoff an die #Pilznetzwerke ab – und im Gegenzug versorgen die #Pilze die #Pflanzen mit Nährstoffen und Wasser“, erklärt der Evolutionsbiologe Justin Stewart von der gemeinnützigen Forschungsorganisation „Society for the Protection of Underground Networks" (#SPUN). Schätzungen des Forschungsteams zufolge sind rund 70% aller Pflanzen weltweit auf diesen Tauschhandel angewiesen.

Weltweit gibt es mehrere hundert Pilzarten, die zu der Gruppe der AM-Pilze zählen. Wie groß und verbreitet ihre unterirdischen Netzwerke tatsächlich sind, war bisher aber weitgehend unklar. Stewart machte es sich daher zusammen mit einem internationalen Team zur Aufgabe, eine interaktive Weltkarte der AM-Pilze zu erstellen, die die Forschenden aktuell in einer Studie im Fachjournal „Science“ präsentieren.

https://science.orf.at/stories/3235940/

#Biologie

"A lot of large-scale agriculture practices harm fungal networks. The most apparent way is with something like tilling, where you go into a soil and literally rip it up.” Fertilisers or fungicides can also “disrupt the symbiosis between the plants and the fungi”.

#Fungi #SPUN #Plants #Agriculture

Subterranean fungi networks more than 100 quadrillion km in length, study finds | Fungi | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jun/11/arbuscular-mycorrhizal-fungi-plant-life-climate-global-mapping-study

swirling sweet and tart,

swirling sweet and tart, 
slowly spun silk, turning golden, 
rhubarb on the stove
.
20260609:2142
y

Making of „Flora Fauna Funga“.

>> https://collactivist.myspreadshop.de/flora+fauna+funga+shirt?idea=69e7dbb03105e74fbe3bc123

#florafaunafunga #SolarpunkFashion #mushrooms #mushroomdesign #fungi #mycology #mushroomshirt #fungishirt #Biodiversity #ecology #spun #woodwideweb

Lovely Peeps, I thought this on #mycology in #Africa, and mycology #conservation efforts around the world was interesting!

"This interest in conserving #fungi has been spurred ... by increasing evidence that they play a far larger role in how ecosystems function than previously understood: 90% of plants on Earth rely on fungi to supply them with crucial nutrients, & newer evidence is increasingly pointing to the key role that fungi play in helping maintain a stable #climate.

A recent study found that as much as 36% of annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are stored in the underground mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/apr/14/african-scientists-fungal-conservation-movement-aoe

#Benin #Congo #Zimbabwe #Madagascar #Cotonou #Mushrooms #ICFC #ISFC #MushroomsOfMastodon #Chile #SPUN #Columbia #Kenya