A study of 53,262 root-tip samples from a Chinese fir tree shows that the underground fungi partnering with tree roots change their soil-foraging strategy based on temperature: warmer low-elevation sites favor short, stubby fungal threads, while cooler high-elevation sites support long, wide-reaching networks. As climate warming shifts these temperature conditions, forests may lose the deep-exploring fungal partnerships that help trees survive thin mountain soils.
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Researchers examined 53,262 ectomycorrhizal root tips across a temperature gradient of 0.2–5.1°C, documenting clear temperature- and soil-nutrient-driven shifts in fungal morphology.
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Short hyphal forms dominated at warmer lower elevations, while thick long rhizomorphs prevailed at cooler higher elevations, achieving a foraging space of up to 1.02 × 10 units into the soil profile.
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A new species-morphotype-space (SMS) framework was developed to more reliably quantify how far fungal networks actually forage beyond root tips — addressing a long-standing methodological gap in the field.
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