Soil is not just dirt. Beneath it, mycorrhizal fungi form vast networks that trade minerals with plant roots, enriching soil and pulling carbon out of the atmosphere. According to a recent episode of Quanta Magazine's The Joy of Why, these fungi sequester roughly 13 billion tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide each year — about one-third of global fossil-fuel emissions.
Evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, a MacArthur Fellow at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, studies how these organisms make trade decisions without a brain or central nervous system. Using fluorescent quantum dots and imaging robots, her lab applies economics and game theory to show that fungi can discriminate between better and worse plant partners, shifting resources to wherever plants "pay" more.
The episode notes that fungi served as root systems for plants for tens of millions of years before roots evolved. Kiers is also building a global research community to map the biodiversity of these underground networks and advocate for their protection. The source presents these findings as emerging science, not settled consensus, and does not include dissenting views.