Fungal communities hidden underground support 80 percent of land plants around the world and store 13 billion tons of carbon annually. But new research mapping their locations reveal few concentrations of the vital fungi are protected.

By Wyatt Myskow

In the soils of most ecosystems around the world, mycorrhizal fungal communities form intimate relationships with the roots of the plants above them, exchanging nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen for carbon, of which they store an estimated 13 billion tons annually.

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