Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Science

Fungi Emerges as a Promising Solution to Combat Climate Change

Discover the jaw-dropping potential of fungi as a promising solution to combat climate change.

Fungi
Photo by Phoenix Han on Unsplash

The study published in Current Biology highlights the significant role that fungi play in mitigating climate change. The researchers found that fungi consume over a third of the world’s annual fossil fuel emissions, making them a crucial and often overlooked component of carbon modeling, conservation, and restoration efforts.

Fungi, which include mushrooms, are part of a biological kingdom that exists beneath the surface of the Earth. While they may resemble plants in some ways, fungi are more similar to animals in their need to find food and break it down chemically. Some fungi form symbiotic relationships with plant roots, known as mycorrhizal fungi, where they exchange mineral nutrients for sugars produced by plants. As plants derive their sugars from carbon dioxide in the air, these fungi essentially act as a carbon bank, storing carbon underground.

The researchers estimate that plants worldwide transfer around 13 gigatons of carbon dioxide to underground fungi each year. However, human activities such as agriculture, mining, and industry continually disrupt these subterranean fungal networks. This interference poses a threat to the carbon storage capacity of fungi. The United Nations warned last year that 90 percent of the Earth’s topsoil, where these fungi thrive, could be at risk by 2050.

The implications of this degradation extend beyond food security to climate change. The carbon stored in mushrooms is often overlooked compared to other conservation efforts, such as protecting forests. The lead author of the study, Heidi Hawkins, emphasized the need to understand the stability of carbon stored in mushrooms, as it is not a one-way process. Some carbon is retained in the fungal structures, some become bound in minerals in the soil, and some is released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.

While more research is needed to understand the specifics of these relationships fully, it is clear that disrupting these underground fungal networks undermines our efforts to combat climate change and jeopardizes the ecosystems we rely on. Recognizing the importance of fungi in maintaining the health of our planet is crucial for developing effective strategies to mitigate climate change and conserve biodiversity.

Avatar photo
Written By

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement

You May Also Like

Trill Mag/ Sofia SongTrill Mag/ Sofia Song

Fashion

Discover the world of Wicked, exploring the stunning costumes of the movie and stage productions, which enhance the characters' identities.

An unmasked Spider-Man lies on a train floor as people surround himAn unmasked Spider-Man lies on a train floor as people surround him

Entertainment

Whilst Superhero films are suffering from a lack of creative quality, I reflect on the real great Spider-Man films of our childhood's.

Music

Japanese music is getting more and more popular overseas. Here are 5 artists you can listen to on streaming services right now!

Life

20 was one of the best years of my life! I learnt a lot, good and bad. Hopefully you can learn from some of...