THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

Fungi take up more mass than people—see how they stretch across the ... Scientists created the first-ever map of this vast underground fungal network and found it could stretch to the sun and back more than a billion times. We might only think of fungi as the mold in our walls, the fleshy protrusions on rotting logs, or the button mushrooms for sale in the grocery store—but most fungal life takes place far out of human sight. The “roots” of the fungus under the soil form the organism’s mycelium. There, tiny filaments called hyphae form networks among plantsand supply them with the essential nutrients they need to grow. A new study, published today inScience, has attempted toquantify the extent of these hyphae networks. For the first time, scientists have created a global map showing where these types of fungi are most likely to be found. Using machine-learning models and evidence from thousands of soil cores, scientists also found that a single type of fungus—called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi—collectively weigh 300 megatons, four to six times the mass of every human on the planet. The tiny hyphal fingers of these networks reach far enough to stretch from Earth to the sun and…

Threads of underground fungal networks are long enough to reach beyond the Solar System Researchers have quantified the length and mass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks globally.

Our Hidden Fungal Networks Could Reach Beyond the Solar System This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultrathin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun, according to […]

Scientists map a groundbreaking fungal network spanning over 110 quadrillion kilometers beneath the Earth's surface. The global study shows these underground systems sustain 70% of plant life, but warns modern agricultural tilling reduces network densities by 47.3% on average.

This unfathomably huge fungal network keeps Earth cool and green Even if you don’t like eating mushrooms, you’re in debt to fungi. One group of them, known as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, form vast subterranean networks of tubes called hyphae, hooking up with the roots of plants to exchange nutrients. Earth is so verdant in large part thanks to these partnerships , as this expansive infrastructure is associated with nearly three-quarters of all plant species. But because the network sprawls underground, it’s been difficult for scientists to determine just how much arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is out there. (Good luck digging everywhere on the planet and taking samples.) Scientists have developed a workaround, which has produced some astonishing numbers. Using machine learning models, they’ve estimated that worldwide, the arbuscular mycorrhizal network stretches for 110 quadrillion kilometers, almost a billion times the distance from Earth to the sun. (Scoop up just a teaspoon of soil and you might find 10 meters of fungal strands.) Every year, these fungi shuttle around 4 billion metric tons of carbon, equal to 11 percent of humanity’s CO2 emissions. Because scientists have alrea…

Hidden Web of Fungus Inside Earth Could Reach The Sun a Billion Times Hidden Web of Fungus Inside Earth Could Reach The Sun a Billion Times Nature 12 June 2026 By Michelle Starr Add ScienceAlert on Google Fluorescent-tagged carbon moving through filaments of mycorrhizal fungus. (Rachael Cargill, Loreto Oyarte Gálvez (VU Amsterdam, AMOLF) & Justin Magness ) The ground beneath your feet is not quiescent. It zings and pulses with frenzied activity, much of it driven by a partnership between plants and fungi that dates back at least 450 million years. This is the mycorrhizal network – a vast system of fungal filaments locked in a mutual exchange with the plant life that carpets our planet, transporting nutrients from the soil and receiving in return the carbon produced by plant photosynthesis . It's large, and it's vital. Around 70 percent of all plant species rely on mycorrhizal symbiosis . Now, for the first time, scientists have compiled a global map of this hidden infrastructure, revealing an underground network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM) threads that stretches an estimated 110 quadrillion kilometers through Earth's soils. That's long enough to travel the 150 million-ki…

Threads of Earth's Underground Fungal Networks Are Long Enough to Reach ... By Wyatt Myskow, Inside Climate News Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultra-thin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times thge distance between the Earth and the sun, according to new research published in Science on Thursday. These fungal communities form intimate relationships with the roots of plants, which they provide with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for carbon, 1 billion tons of which the networks sequester underground annually, previous research has found. If the fungal network wasn’t storing it, that carbon would be warming the atmosphere. But those networks have never been mapped globally until now. The new study led by Society for the Protection of Underground Networks , or SPUN, an organization founded to map mycorrhizal fungi networks, used a combination of literature review, soil samples from around the globe, machine learning and laboratory testing to estimate the distribution and mass of these systems and map where they are densest. “This is the …

Scientists have mapped Earth’s vast underground fungal networks for the first time, revealing a staggering 68 quadrillion miles of fungal threads that help regulate the climate. A groundbreaking new study estimates that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form an underground network…

Threads of underground fungal networks are long enough to reach beyond ... Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultra-thin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun, according to new research published in Science on Thursday. These fungal communities form intimate relationships with the roots of plants, which they provide with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for carbon, 1 billion tons of which the networks sequester underground annually, previous research has found. If the fungal network wasn’t storing it, that carbon would be warming the atmosphere. But those networks have never been mapped globally until now. The new study led by Society for the Protection of Underground Networks , or SPUN, an organization founded to map mycorrhizal fungi networks, used a combination of literature review, soil samples from around the globe, machine learning and laboratory testing to estimate the distribution and mass of these systems and map where they are densest. “This is the moment where we went from knowing that …

Underground Networking: The Amazing Connections Beneath ... Walking through the forest, it’s easiest to pay attention to what is happening at eye level and above. Birds, sunlight, wind, branches, there’s a lot to observe. Next time you’re exploring a forest, consider what lies below the soil, leaves, and moss that carpet the ground. Underneath the forest floor, intertwined with the roots of the trees, is a fascinating microscopic network of fungus. When most of us think of fungus, we imagine mushrooms sprouting out of the ground. Those mushrooms are in fact the “fruit” of the fungus, while the majority of the fungal organism lives in the soil interwoven with tree roots as a vast network of mycelium. Mycelium are incredibly tiny “threads” of the greater fungal organism that wrap around or bore into tree roots. Taken together, myecelium composes what’s called a “mycorrhizal network,” which connects individual plants together to transfer water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals. German forester Peter Wohlleben dubbed this network the “woodwide web,” as it is through the mycelium that trees “communicate.” In healthy forests, each tree is connected to others via this network, enabl…