Mycorrhizal fungi

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Today, over ninety percent of plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi, which link trees and other plants in shared mycelial networks also known as the wood wide web. This ancient partnership gave rise to life on land, with early fungi eating the rocks and minerals to make the first soil for plants. Today, lichens (unions of fungi and algae) are still the first organisms to establish themselves and make soil after volcanic islands or made or glaciers retreat to reveal bare rock.[1]

Soil Carbon

Glomalin is a soil glue produced by mycorrhizal fungi which plays an essential role in the formation and maintenance of soil through aggregation, facilitates the transfer of nutrients and water through fungal hyphae and soil ecosystems, and makes up a third of all soil organic carbon.

Furthermore, ectomycorrhizal fungi can slow down decomposition, a natural process that returns carbon from forest soils back to the atmosphere.[2]

Hempforestry

Related: Forestgarden | Hempforest