There's a Global Network of Fungi Under Your Feet. This Is the First Complete Map

A new study has succeeded in mapping, on a global scale, the fungal network that supports plant life and helps regulate our planet's climate. Beneath the Earth's surface lies an extraordinary underground fungal network of almost unimaginable scale. An international team of researchers has, for the first time, produced a global map of this vast mycorrhizal network--the system of fungal filaments that forms mutually beneficial partnerships with plants across the planet. They estimate that the network stretches for roughly 110 quadrillion kilometers in total, nearly 1 billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun. The findings were published in Science. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) form underground networks that support plant life and help regulate the Earth's climate.