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.

Life is underpinned by fungi. Fungal filaments extend through the soil in networks of mycelia, but we know relatively little about them and questions abound, including where on Earth they are and in what diversity and abundance. Vast and powerful, mycelial networks sequester carbon, hold soils together and supply as much as 80 per cent of all nutrients to terrestrial plants. In just one hectare of grassland, the extent of fungi is equivalent to around 12 million times the length of the Amazon River. But just like the distributions of plant species, those of fungi are almost certainly shifting in response to climate change.