Fungi feed plants via underground networks

Underground ecosystems are much more complex and diverse than suspected, writes Marcel van der Heijden (Biology) in a Perspective article in Science on April 15, in response to an article by Tamil Klein et al. (University of Basel) in the same issue.

Van der Heijden does research on mycorrhizal fungi, which connect to roots of plants to form a symbiotic interaction. Plants often benefit from infection by these fungi and show enhanced growth. Plants can obtain up to 80% of nitrogen and up to 90% of their phosphorus demand from mycorrhizal fungi, which in turn receive photosynthates from the plant. The result is an association between two completely different organisms. Van der Heijden focuses mostly on the agricultural and ecological significance of mycorrhizal fungi and mycorrhizal fungal diversity.

Forest stability

These mycorrhizal fungi are also the subject of the publication discussed by Van der Heijden in Science, in which Klein et al. describe that substantial amounts of carbon are exchanged between large forest trees. The research found that up to 4% of the forest’s net carbon uptake was transferred between different tree individuals, most likely through underground fungal networks of mycorrhizal fungi. So far it was unknown that such large amounts of carbon are exchanged between different trees. An important next step is to investigate whether trees actually benefit from this carbon exchange, and which effect this has on forest stability.

Marcel van der Heijden

Marcel van der Heijden is a professor in the Plant-Microbe Interactions group at Utrecht University, in addition to his full-time job at Agroscope, Institute for Sustainability Sciences in Zürich (Switzerland), where he leads the research group Soil-Plant Interactions. He is also appointed as a visiting professor at the University of Zürich.

Publication

Underground networking: Fungal networks transfer carbon between forest trees
Marcel G. A. van der Heijden (Institute for Sustainability Sciences/University of Zurich/Utrecht University)
Science, 15 april 2016, doi 10.1126/science.aaf4694