Mycorrhizal fungi are responsible for holding up to 36 per cent of yearly global fossil fuel emissions below ground - more than China emits each year.
The fungi make up a vast underground network all over the planet underneath grasslands and forests, as well as roads, gardens, and houses on every continent on Earth.
Researchers are now calling for fungi to be considered more heavily in conservation and biodiversity policies, and are investigating whether we can increase how much carbon the soil underneath us can hold.
The underground network of fungi stores over 13 gigatonnes of carbon around the world, roughly equivalent to 36 per cent of yearly global fossil fuel emissions, according to new research.
It is widely believed that mycorrhizal fungi could store carbon, as the fungi form symbiotic relationships with almost all land plants and transport carbon, converted into sugars and fats by the plant, into soil, but until now the true extent of just how...