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Serita Frey, UNH professor of , recently authored a state-of-the-science article, , that addresses a controversy among scientists about whether or not mycorrhizal fungi contribute to the soil carbon cycle. (Spoiler alert: They do.)

Mycorrhizal fungi are microorganisms that attach to plant roots, effectively extending the plant鈥檚 access to nutrients and water. Greater than 90 percent of all plants have this fungus attached to their roots, and many plants could not survive without it.

For a non-scientist working through Frey鈥檚 comprehensive summation of what鈥檚 known about mycorrhizal fungi, there is one sentence that stands out as simple to grasp: two-times more carbon is stored in soil than in all vegetation and the atmosphere combined. This arresting fact gives instantaneous meaning to the intricacies of the soil carbon cycle: a mass discharge of this stored greenhouse gas could have catastrophic implications for the environment.

Frey says historically plant-centric research on mycorrhizal fungi ignored the possibility that these hard-working microorganisms influence soil鈥檚 ability to store carbon. Current research, however, confirms that they are both facilitators of carbon storage and influencers of organic matter decomposition.

鈥淩ecently there been increasing interest in what these mycorrhizal fungi are doing for carbon storage in the soil,鈥� says Frey. 鈥淭hey do contribute. We now know that a lot of that carbon plants take out of the atmosphere goes into the mycorrhizae and that then, because fungi are microscopic and they get into places in the soil that roots can鈥檛 go, that carbon is stabilized long term.鈥�

What鈥檚 more, the knowledge Frey makes plain can help scientists predict how microorganisms in soil respond to environmental changes and figure out how to keep soil carbon stores stable.

鈥淲hen you think about climate change mitigation strategies,鈥� continues Frey, 鈥渢he fungal component has an important role in a carbon sequestration strategy. There鈥檚 the protection of carbon in soil and the release of carbon from soil, and it鈥檚 the balance of those two processes that鈥檚 going to influence the role that soils play in greenhouse gas production or mitigation. The mycorrhizae are doing both of those things.鈥�

Frey was invited by Sarah Hobbie, professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of Minnesota and one of the editors of the Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, to write the state-of-the-science-paper, a request that is commonly considered an honor among researchers. The internationally recognized soil expert was recently named among the Web of Science Group鈥檚 2019 Highly Cited Researchers, a designation that includes just 0.1 percent of the world鈥檚 scientists.

鈥淭o me it鈥檚 just always fascinating that the activities of something that鈥檚 microscopic, that we can鈥檛 see and that few people 听think much about, can actually scale up and have implications for the whole planet,鈥� says Frey. 鈥淭o me, that鈥檚 what blows my mind pretty much every day.鈥�

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