Mycorrhizal Carbon

The planet naturally releases and absorbs far more carbon dioxide than humans emit by burning fossil fuels. The problem is that human activities have thrown the Earth’s carbon cycle out of balance.

The Earth’s natural carbon cycle moves a staggering amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) around our planet. Some parts of the planet, such as the oceans and forests, absorb carbon dioxide and store it for hundreds or thousands of years. These are called natural carbon sinks. Meanwhile, natural sources of CO2, such as undersea volcanoes and hydrothermal vents, release carbon. Altogether the planet absorbs and emits somewhere on the order of 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide through this natural cycle every year.

That total dwarfs humanity’s contribution, amounting to ten times as much CO2 as humans produce through activities such as burning fossil fuels.

If people emit only a tenth as much CO2 as nature does, then why are scientists so concerned about our emissions driving climate change? It is because our extra chunk of carbon emissions has tipped out of equilibrium what was once a balanced cycle. “What’s being taken out by natural processes is more or less equal to what’s being put in—other than the extent to which we’ve disturbed it,” This is why the atmospheric level of CO2 continues to creep up as humans keep burning fossil fuels: Human activities tip the scales by adding carbon to the air faster than the planet’s sinks can absorb it.

– Daniel Rothman, MIT professor of geophysics

Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon. It is a common notion that improving carbon storage involves just planting trees. However, the crucial factor lies underground with the symbiont connections of plants with living organisms, specifically Mycorrhizal fungi webs and the glycoproteins they secrete.

It is clear that the earth’s underground sinks equate to far higher carbon storage than the vegetation above the ground.

Wetlands serve as significant carbon reservoirs. Although they cover just 5-8% of the earth’s land area, they contain a substantial portion, ranging from 20 to 30% of the total organic soil carbon estimated to exist. However large gains could certainly be made by focusing on how we manage croplands and grassland.

Agricultural soils have the potential to capture up to 8 Gt of CO2 equivalent each year, enough to counterbalance emissions from the global transmission sector.

Currently, carbon levels are excessive in the atmosphere while lacking in the soil, but mycorrhizae, supported by products like Mycorrcin, offer a promising solution to restore this balance with carbon storage.

Supported by scientific evidence, mycorrhizae play a crucial role in permanently storing carbon in the soil. As plants undergo photosynthesis, they convert carbon dioxide into organic carbon, with 20% of it transferred to mycorrhizal fungi through their roots. Mycorrcin enhances this process, ensuring maximum efficiency in carbon transfer and storage.

Remarkably, mycorrhizae contribute up to 60% of all plant-derived soil organic carbon. This carbon is then securely sequestered within recalcitrant glycoproteins, maintaining stability and permanence even after decades of tillage.

For more than 400 million years, mycorrhizal fungi and plants have formed partnerships that are crucial to the emergence and functioning of global ecosystems. The importance of these symbiotic fungi for plant nutrition is well established.

However, the role of mycorrhizal fungi in transporting carbon into soil systems on a global scale remains under-explored. This is surprising given that 75% of terrestrial carbon is stored below ground and mycorrhizal fungi are stationed at a key entry point of carbon into soil food webs. Here, nearly 200 datasets have been analysed to provide the first global quantitative estimates of carbon allocation from plants to the mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi. The contributors estimate that global plant communities allocate 3.93 Gt CO2e per year to arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and argue that this work confirms the significant contribution made by mycorrhizal associations to global carbon dynamics.

These findings should motivate the inclusion of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi both within global climate and carbon cycling models, and within conservation policy and practice.

When we destroy them, we sabotage our efforts to limit global heating.

SEQUESTER

Mycorrhizal fungi create complex networks that move carbon from plant roots into the soil. Healthy fungal networks can help us control rising CO2 levels because carbon that enters the soil from fungal networks has a longer residence time compared to other carbon sources, like leaves.

FORAGE

We are on the brink of exhausting Earth’s phosphorus reserves. Mycorrhizal fungi can exceed the length of a plant’s roots by as much as 100 times, and have evolved sophisticated ways to find, extract, and transport nutrients – like phosphorus – around ecosystems. When we destroy fungal networks, we lose access to their powerful abilities to forage for nutrients in the soil.

PROTECT

Mycorrhizal fungi support ecosystem biodiversity. From rainforests to the arctic tundra, fungal networks lie at the base of the food webs that support nearly all terrestrial organisms. Fungal networks feed plants, and protect them from metal toxicity, salinity, drought, pathogens, & herbivores.