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https://reasonstobecheerful.world/environmental-triumph-fungi-forest-soil-restoration-climate-change/>
"Each planting season, Claudia Bashian-Victoroff ventures out into Bole Woods,
a 70-acre old-growth forest on the outskirts of Holden Forests & Gardens in the
Cleveland suburbs, in search of fungi. But as she navigates the sugar maples,
chestnut oaks, American beech and western red cedar that tower overhead, she
focuses not on the forest floor but on what lies beneath.
Kneeling beside a stand of maples, she clears away the leaf litter to reveal
the topsoil and digs up the first few inches, where the vast majority of soil
microbes are active. Laced throughout, weaving an intricate, microscopic web,
are the mycorrhizal fungi she’s after — fungi that have spent 400 million years
learning to live in symbiosis with plants, including the trees throughout Bole
Woods and at least 80 percent of all species on the planet.
Bashian-Victoroff doesn’t need much soil. A single spoonful can contain miles
of fungal hyphae and filaments, engaged in an ancient evolutionary exchange
with the trees to which they’ve bonded. The fungi gather up water and
nutrients, and deliver them to the trees. In return, they receive carbohydrates
developed through photosynthesis, which they fix into the soil as they grow.
It’s a prosperous cycle, and Bashian-Victoroff is among a growing global
community of researchers and conservationists taking advantage of this
relationship to restore forests and other degraded ecosystems. Their goal:
Promote the health of the soil beneath our feet and the plants it supports,
sequester carbon and make agriculture more sustainable."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
