How to map quadrillions of miles of underground fungi

NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with ecologist Justin Stewart about mapping the complex network of fungi connecting the Earth's plants. NPR Science LISTEN & FOLLOW Science How to map quadrillions of miles of underground fungi June 16, 20265:29 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered By  Zephyr Weinreich ,  Patrick Jarenwattananon ,  Adrian Florido How to map quadrillions of miles of underground fungi Listen · Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed <iframe src="https://www. npr. org/player/embed/nx-s1-5855231/nx-s1-9813108" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript NPR's Adrian Florido speaks with ecologist Justin Stewart about mapping the complex network of fungi connecting the Earth's plants. ADRIAN FLORIDO, HOST: I want to tell you about a massive underground network of fungi, specifically vast fungus networks that form relationships with the roots of plants. The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, SPUN, is the group that studies them, and it's just released the first-ever map of the global mycorrhizal network. To talk about what this map tells us, we've reached one of the scientists who published it, ecologist Justin Stewart. JUSTIN STEWART: Thank you very much. I'm excited to be here. FLORIDO: Can you just help us picture what this mycorrhizal fungus network is? What does it look like? Is this an underground, like, network of mushrooms? STEWART: So these are very ancient. They've shaped life on land for around 450 million years, and they form symbiotic networks with plants. So think of them as small filaments in soil. You have this network that doesn't make a fruiting body. There's no mushroom, but it's a vast network of mycelial threads in soils. FLORIDO: And what does it look like? STEWART: Well, I mean, this is one of the most difficult things about mycorrhizal fungi, is they look so foreign to anything that we see above ground. They form meter-long threads of mycelium. So if you imagine something like a rail network or a road network, we often talk about mycorrhizal fungi as infrastructure in Earth's soils. FLORIDO: And so, you know, what do these fungal networks do? STEWART: These fungal networks complete a very important resource transfer that's important for planetary health. Plants make carbon through photosynthesis and because these fungi form such intimate associations with the roots of plants, they have direct access to that carbon, and they funnel it deep into Earth's soils. These plants are being fed .