1 August, 2025

Think biodiversity is all birds, trees, and coral reefs? That’s only half the story. Life on Earth is diverse and dynamic beneath the surface, as well as above it. This week, scientists unveiled the first-ever global atlas of underground fungi revealing a vast, hidden ecosystem teeming with biodiversity just below our feet. Built from 2.8 billion DNA sequences and over a million soil samples from 130 countries, it’s the most detailed look yet at the fungi quietly holding our ecosystems together. 

These fungi might not get much airtime, but they’re essential to life on Earth. They support plants to absorb nutrients, fend off disease, and cope with stress. They also play a huge and often underappreciated role in climate regulation, storing an estimated 13 billion tonnes of CO₂ each year (about a third of what we emit from fossil fuels). 

And yet, the new research paints a worrying picture: 90% of the most biodiverse fungi hotspots aren’t protected. And unlike many biodiversity maps that spotlight tropical rainforests, the richest fungal zones turned up in more surprising places: along Ghana’s coastline, in the Mediterranean scrublands, Tasmania’s temperate forests, and even the Alaskan tundra. It’s a sign that fungi have been undocumented and therefore left out of conservation and climate change conversations – and this could come at a cost. When these underground networks are damaged, ecosystems weaken, and climate risks grow. 

The good news? The atlas is more than just a scientific achievement: it’s a tool for action. It gives conservationists and policymakers the ability to prioritise protection and restoration efforts that include fungal diversity, not just visible flora and fauna. And in agriculture and land management, it opens the door to working more closely with natural underground systems rather than against them. 

By Charlotte Pounder