Scientists Mapped Earth's Vast Fungal Network - And It's Critical For The Climate

科学家绘制了地球庞大的真菌网络地图——这对气候至关重要。

New Scientist Podcasts

2026-06-12

26 分钟
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Episode 376 For the first time, scientists have mapped Earth’s vast underground fungal network - and it’s bigger than anyone imagined. Beneath our feet, plants and fungi have a hidden symbiotic relationship, sharing nutrients through fine fungal threads called hyphae. With these new global maps, we’re now starting to understand just how important the mycorrhizal network is in keeping the Earth’s climate stable - including the extent of the carbon it draws down. But the ecosystems where these networks exist are being stripped back for agriculture and damaged by fungicides - so how can we protect them? To explore this topic, Rowan Hooper is joined by some of the researchers behind the project - Toby Kiers, Tom Shimizu and Merlin Sheldrake. To read more about these stories, visit https://www.newscientist.com/ Find out more about SPUN, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks: https://www.spun.earth/  See the Mycorrhizal Infrastructure Map: https://a-hidden-infrastructure.spun.earth   Read Rowan’s symbiosis book ‘Togetherness’: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/459006/togetherness-by-hooper-rowan/9781911717140 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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  • You've heard us talk on the podcast about the Wood Wide Web.

  • That's the idea that plants communicate and maybe share resources through a network of underground fungal connections.

  • That's controversial, but what isn't is that there's an ancient symbiosis between plants and fungi all over the world.

  • Plants provide food to the fungi, and the fungi provide nutrients to the plant.

  • We knew this symbiosis was vital, but we didn't know the extent of this underground fungal network.

  • Now for the first time scientists have made global maps of the distribution

  • and the extent and the mass of these fungal networks is frankly insane.

  • If you put all the networks together in a line it would run between

  • the earth and the sun a billion times and the consequences for our understanding of carbon storage,

  • movement of water and all nutrients underground are profound.

  • From New Scientist, this is the world, the universe, and us.

  • I'm Dr. Ron Hooper.