Global density and biomass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks.
Stewart JD, Bisot C, Cargill RIM, Van Nuland ME, Hawkins HJ
Mycorrhizal Networks
Every tree, shrub, and perennial in your garden is almost certainly plugged into one of these fungal networks right now, quietly trading sugar for phosphorus and water in a deal that started 450 million years ago.
Beneath almost every plant on Earth, there are microscopic fungal threads woven through the soil that act like a nutrient delivery system. Scientists analyzed data from over 16,000 soil samples worldwide and used machine learning to estimate just how much of this fungal thread exists globally. The answer is staggering: enough thread to wrap around our galaxy, weighing about 300 million tons — four to six times the weight of all humans combined.
Key Findings
Global topsoils contain an estimated 1.10 × 10¹⁷ kilometers of living fungal threads — enough to span the Milky Way many times over.
These fungal networks move approximately 1 billion metric tons of carbon per year into Earth's soils, making them a major player in the global carbon cycle.
The total biomass of these networks weighs roughly 300 megatons, four to six times the total biomass of all humans on Earth.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists measured the underground fungal networks that connect plant roots worldwide, finding an almost incomprehensibly vast system — long enough to stretch across the galaxy — that moves a billion tons of carbon into soil every year.
Abstract Preview
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 ...
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