Earth’s underground networks of fungi need urgent protection, say researchers

The researchers used machine-learning techniques containing 2.8bn fungal sequences sampled from more than 130 countries to create the biodiversity maps. Photograph: Justin Long/Alamy

The underground networks of fungi that underpin the planet’s ecosystems needs urgent conservation action by politicians, a research organisation has said.

Scientists from the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (Spun) have created the first high-resolution biodiversity maps of Earth’s underground mycorrhizal fungal ecosystems.