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There is an entire kingdom underneath our feet that remains largely mysterious. Fungi have an entire taxonomic kingdom devoted to them, yet we keep discovering new species and uncovering more ecological significance.

And they hold the key to accelerating carbon sequestration and helping foresters profit by growing healthier trees.

Fungi’s Unseen Role in Ecosystems

After I read The Hidden Life of Trees, I remember walking on a trail among some of remaining old growth forests of New Zealand and feeling a deep sense of awe at what was really happening on around and beneath me.

Only 150,000 species of fungi have been documented, with an estimated 1-12 millions more worldwide still left to discover. Their roles vary, but all of their ecological functions are absolutely essential for life to function on Earth.

Saprophytic

Most people are familiar with the fruiting bodies of fungi, which are the reproductive expression of certain fungi, known as macrofungi.

Saprophytic fungi are the largest group of macrofungi. They are responsible for breaking down dead plant and animal material, recycling nutrients and making them more available for the soil food web and growing plants.

These fungi are contain fruiting bodies we commonly associate with ‘mushrooms’. Think of shiitake mushroom farming, where oak stumps are inoculated with spores, then as the fungi breaks down and feeds on the wood, it produces fruiting bodies that we consume as food and medicine.

Without saprophytic mushrooms, the forest floor would be covered in a deepening layer of bound nutrients and plants would be unable to cycle those to fuel new growth themselves.

Mycorrhizal

Microfungi, on the other hand, exist almost exclusively as a mycelium living underneath the surface in soils and don't produce fruiting bodies at all.

Without these fungi, forests would fail to function properly.

Mycorrhizal literally translates to “fungus-root,” accurately put, since this type of fungi enters the plant's roots, forming a direct association with it.

This symbiotic relationship extends the plant's root system, increasing its absorptive area and essentially plugging it into the extended mycelial network.

The fungi are fed sugars from photosynthesis through root exudates, and the plant is fed nutrients and water out of its reach from the mycorrhizal fungi’s extended network. Some estimates up to 30% of the sugar (carbon) that trees photosynthesize from sunlight are fed to fungi, but varies by ecoregion and tree species.

Trees can even sense sick and weakened neighboring trees and send them needed nutrients. The same neighborly nutrient sharing benefits young growing saplings, who are more vulnerable but are strengthened by plugging into the immense mycelial network that benefits the entire forest ecosystem.

Without the mycorrhizal fungi network, the trees in a forest are alone on an island. But when soils and roots are inoculated with healthy fungal populations, the forest becomes a vast connected community network.

Moving Towards Regenerative Forestry

Funga is developing a fungi-first approach to forest restoration, forest management, and scalable climate action.

Dr. Colin Averill founded this public benefit corporation after realizing the rise of climate tech and major corporate interest in large scale carbon removal.

Bringing over a decade of experience researching the forest microbiome, he and his team are restoring the power of fungal biodiversity to the forest industry, accelerating tree growth and carbon drawdown.

Globally, all plants on land already remove ~30% of the carbon we emit.

Funga is seeing if they can make that drawdown even more efficient.

Human Microbiome Meets the Soil

The Human Microbiome Project developed research resources to enable the study of the microbial communities that live in and on our bodies and the roles they play in human health and disease.

Funga took this approach and applied them to the forest floor.

Their team is visiting forests from all over the world, taking soil samples, and sequencing the DNA from the soils. With this data, they compare that fungal microbiome information with climate and soil data to:

• (1) which forests harbor fungi linked to accelerated tree growth and carbon removal

• (2) do those fungi resemble intact, wild communities native to this part of the world?

They learn which forests are rich with high performing communities of fungi and then identify them “donor forests.”

Soil is then sourced and used an inoculant in their nursery trees that will be planted following clear cut harvests. It’s vital to reestablish wild populations of fungi before planting new trees, especially if there are no host trees left.

Meet the North America’s Largest Forest Seedling Provider

Funga recently teamed up with PRT-IFCO, North America’s largest forest seedling provider. They currently grow more than 600 million seedlings annually to bring their database of soil DNA to even more acres for forest.

With access to more trees and more trials, they are gaining clarity on which fungi promote tree growth across regions and help farmers grow healthier trees with more yield, sequester carbon, and help restore forest health.

Carbon Markets Financing Forest Regeneration

Trees stores roughly half of their carbon in their wood and the other half in their roots into the soil (depending on the species). Healthy forest ecosystems stores carbon, as well as the tree itself. The increasing of wood volume directly enhances carbon storage from healthier fungi networks.

This quantifiable data lets Funga to leverage the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) as a financing mechanism for regeneration. The partnership allows them to launch this natural climate solution at scale and providing PRT-IFCO an additional value proposition for their clients from the soil microbiome restoration, increased yield, and carbon market engagement.

All while growing healthier trees, accelerating carbon drawdown, and increasing yield for farmers, and financing regeneration!

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