Numlock Sunday: Kylie Mohr on the underground networks worth protecting

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

By Walt Hickey

Welcome to the Numlock Sunday edition.

This week, I spoke to Kylie Mohr over at High Country News, who wrote Why mycorrhizal fungi networks need more protection. This is what I wrote about it:

There are large, widespread networks of interconnected microbes that are tied together thanks to network-forming mycorrhizal fungi that facilitate their spread and connection. The western part of the United States is pretty rich in these kinds of subterranean ecosystems — it’s home to about five percent of all of the world’s ectomycorrhizal fungi hotspots — which can form symbiotic relationships with trees and shrubs across forests. A new atlas produced by the delightfully named Society for the Protection of Underground Networks estimates that 90 percent of mycorrhizal biodiversity hotspots are not within protected areas, leaving them vulnerable to destruction. With mycorrhizal fungi storing 13 billion tons of carbon, this destruction could have serio…