Bob Novella

This is in the Netherlands and the University of Sheffield.

What they ended up doing was they produced the first global estimate of the physical size of arbuscular mycorrhizal.

Okay.

Mycorrhizal.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks in topsoil.

And thank God, I think they call these the AM.

You know, it's like the AM network.

So from here on out, I will refer to what Steve just said as the AM network.

Thank you.

So these are microscopic fungal threads, right?

They're also called hyphae, and they live around inside plant roots.

And I did talk about these not too long ago, just because we found out more information about exactly what they're doing.

Now, just so everyone knows, these really don't exist like visible mushrooms, right?

Most of their activity happens as these microscopic threads that are found in the soil, particularly where roots are.

And they connect not only with the plant roots, but they're also making it so the plants have a much larger capacity to pull nutrients and water to themselves.

And they also have an effect on the carbon that ends up in the soil and in the ecosystem.

And scientists, when they did this study, what they were saying is that the climate and conservation planning typically focuses on what we can see above ground.

But a huge part that they found in the study is that plant health is coming from soil function, nutrient cycling, carbon movement.

It's all happening underground.

And the study tries to make that hidden fungal infrastructure somehow measurable so it can be included in climate models and for future conservation planning.