News · 16 June 2026
Global map charts Earth's hidden fungal networks
Unsplash / Neslihan Gunaydin
These extensive underground networks act like a living circulatory system, moving an estimated 4 billion tons of CO2 into soils yearly. Researchers with SPUN, a conservation group, used data from over 16,000 soil cores and machine learning to build these first global maps. The maps show croplands have about half the network density of wild areas, and 90% of biodiversity hotspots lie outside protected zones.
Reported by news - Mongabay · How we write briefs