Research Keyword: carbon allocation

Towards understanding the impact of mycorrhizal fungal environments on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems

Mycorrhizal fungi form partnerships with plant roots and profoundly influence soil health and carbon storage. Different types of these fungi (arbuscular, ectomycorrhizal, and ericoid) work differently and create distinct soil environments with varying impacts on nutrient availability and carbon cycling. Researchers have now developed a unified framework and an experimental system to better understand and measure these effects, which could improve our ability to manage soils and predict ecosystem responses to environmental changes.

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Mycorrhizal network: a bidirectional pathway between green-leaved terrestrial orchids and pine trees

Underground fungal networks connect plant roots like a trading system. Scientists studied how three types of orchids and pine trees exchange carbon and nitrogen through these fungal connections. They found that each orchid species trades resources differently, with carbon consistently flowing from pine to orchids, but nitrogen movement varying by species. This shows that these underground networks are more complex and flexible than previously thought.

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Towards understanding the impact of mycorrhizal fungal environments on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems

This research examines how different types of fungal partners of plants affect soil health and function. Scientists propose a new framework called mycorrhizal fungal environments (MyFE) to better understand how these underground fungi influence carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and overall soil properties. They introduced a large-scale experiment called Mycotron to study three main types of mycorrhizal fungi and their distinct impacts on soil processes, which could help us better manage soils in response to climate change.

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Cellular anatomy of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

This comprehensive review explains the unique cellular structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, which form vast underground networks connecting plants to soil nutrients. These fungi are remarkable because their hyphae lack internal walls, allowing nutrients and organelles to flow freely throughout their continuous cytoplasm. By synthesizing current knowledge about how these fungi are organized and function at the cellular level, the authors highlight how this organization enables the complex nutrient exchange that supports plant growth and ecosystem health worldwide.

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