415: Global Glomus Growth Guesses

This episode: A global estimate of plants and their root fungi
shows how agriculture may have greatly affected soil carbon
storage over time!


Download Episode (5.7 MB, 8.3 minutes)

Show notes:
Microbe of the episode: Rhizobium virus RHEph4

News item

Takeaways
Even small organisms can have a big effect on the climate of the
planet if there are enough of them. This includes trees, which
are small relative to the planet, and also includes the fungi
that attach to the roots of trees and other plants. These
mycorrhizal fungi thread subtly through the soil, some
occasionally popping up mushrooms, and transfer valuable
nutrients they gather to the trees in exchange for carbon fixed
from the air.

Knowing how big an effect a given kind of organism has requires
knowing how much of it is around. This study collates data from
various surveys of global plant populations and the fungi that
interact with their roots, to estimate a global picture of the
fungi below our feet. It estimates that a kind of fungus that
stores more carbon in the soil may have been replaced in many
areas with fungi that store less, or no fungi at all, due to the
transformation of land from wild areas to farmland.

Journal Paper:
Soudzilovskaia NA, van Bodegom PM, Terrer C, Zelfde M van’t,
McCallum I, Luke McCormack M, Fisher JB, Brundrett MC, de Sá NC,
Tedersoo L. 2019. Global mycorrhizal plant distribution linked to
terrestrial carbon stocks. Nat Commun 10:1–10.


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