For the First Time, the Underground World of Fungi Will Be Mapped

A one-of-a-kind NGO has set out on a quest to catalog the mushrooms that dwell underneath.

The Society for the Protection of Subterranean Networks (SPUN) said Tuesday that it had received the largest gift in its history to assist map and maintain these underground networks, which help to store carbon and transmit nutrients through the soil.

Jane Goodall, Ph.D., DBE, Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute and UN Messenger of Peace, said in a news statement provided to EcoWatch, “This is an extremely important conservation project…  An understanding of underground fungal networks is essential to our efforts to protect the soil, on which life depends, before it is too late.”

Along with Michael Pollan, Merlin Sheldrake, and Fungi Foundation founder Giuliana Furci, Goodall is one of a number of notable writers and environmentalists who are serving as consultants on the project.

The idea for the study came from a growing awareness of the relevance of fungal networks for trees and other plants. According to BBC News, these fungus allow trees to share nutrients through a system known as the “Wood Wide Web.” The network is poorly understood yet vast, spanning 450 quadrillion kilometers (about 280 quadrillion miles), roughly half the size of the Milky Way galaxy.

Human activities like agriculture, fertilizers, pesticides, deforestation, and urbanization, however, pose a threat to these fungal networks. Despite this, more than half of the life below the earth is ignored in attempts to safeguard biodiversity hotspots.

In a news release, Pollan remarked, “Not a moment too soon, the public is waking up to the importance of the mycelial underground to the health of our planet and indeed to our survival as a species,”

Over the following 18 months, SPUN plans to employ machine learning to identify fungal biodiversity hotspots and collect 10,000 samples from these environments. The first collection will take place in Patagonia’s highlands in April 2022. The Canadian tundra, the Mexican plateau, Morocco’s western Sahara, Israel’s Negev desert, Kazakhstan’s steppes, Tibet’s grasslands, and Russia’s taiga are all possible network hotspots, according to The Guardian. SPUN intends to identify the most vulnerable subsurface ecosystems and devise methods to safeguard them once the maps are completed.

The Jeremy and Hannelore Grantham Environmental Trust made a generous grant to this initiative.

In a news release, Jeremy Grantham, who has devoted 98 percent of his net wealth to combating climate change, remarked, “Just below our feet lies an invaluable ally in mitigating climate change – vast hidden fungal networks… Billions of tons of carbon dioxide flow annually from plants into fungal networks. And yet, these carbon sinks are poorly understood. In working to map and harness this threatened but vital resource for life on earth, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks is pioneering a new chapter in global conservation.”

Source: “Underground World of Fungi to Be Mapped for the First Time” by EcoWatch