Carbon stored by fungi in soil could be essential to reach net-zero

London, Jun 6 (PTI) A new study has quantified the fungi in the soil globally to be storing over 13 gigatons of carbon, roughly 36 per cent of yearly global fossil fuel emissions, a finding it said could prove crucial to reach net-zero goals.

The study is a meta-analysis of hundreds of studies looking at plant-soil processes to understand how much carbon is being stored by the fungi on a global scale, conducted by an international team of scientists including those from University of Sheffield, UK.

Mycorrhizal fungi have been known to support life on land for at least 450 million years and make up vast underground networks all around us - even forming beneath roads, gardens, and houses, on every continent on Earth.