Forests are an important climate change regulator. Trees are an important carbon sink within forests that plays a big role in doing that, but there is another critical organism that plays a major role in regulating climate change – fungi. Studies have found that fungi are responsible for most carbon sequestration in forests (Malyan et al. 2019; Choong, 2020).

Most of us recognise fungi as mushrooms, however, these organisms are not always visible. Most of the time, fungi establishes as a network of hyphae (thread-like filament), called mycelium, which are mostly underground, hence they are not visible most of the time. The mushrooms that we normally see are actually the fruiting bodies produced for sexual reproduction. The extensive hyphae network contributes to the storage of carbon within the soil in forests (Malyan et al. 2019). Therefore, a common misconception is that the soil is the carbon sink, however, fungi within the soil are actually responsible for the storage, and it also enhances the rate of carbon sequestration in the soil through the assimilation of carbon from the atmosphere (Malyan et al. 2019).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Network of fungal hyphae, mycelium.

 

However, due to forest pollution, fungi communities within soils may be affected. Nitrogen pollution is determined as the pollutant that these fungi are generally most sensitive to (Averill and Bhatnagar, 2018). The soil pool of carbon is 4.5 times the amount of carbon in biomass (trees, plants, etc.). Soil in general also holds 3.3 times more carbon dioxide as compared to atmosphere (Malyan et al. 2019). As a result, if fungi communities within the soil die due to pollution, it would result in the massive release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, in a sense reversing the carbon sequestration and contributing to worsen climate change (Averill and Bhatnagar, 2018).

References:

Averill, C., & Bhatnagar, J. M. (2018, August 03). Four Things to Know about Fungi “Climate Warriors”. Retrieved October 14, 2020, from http://www.bu.edu/articles/2018/4-things-to-know-about-fungi-climate-warriors/

Choong, M. F. A. (2020). Waste impact on ecosystems (II) [PowerPoint slides]. Unpublished manuscript, LSM1307 Waste and our Environment, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Malyan, S. K., Kumar, A., Baram, S., Kumar, J., Singh, S., Kumar, S. S., & Yadav, A. N. (2019). Role of fungi in climate change abatement through carbon sequestration. In Recent advancement in white biotechnology through fungi (pp. 283-295). Springer, Cham.