WHY ARE FUNGI IMPORTANT?

Fungi play many critically important ecological roles. Many mushrooms form mutually beneficial symbioses with trees and other plants: The fungi supply their tree partner with water and nutrients and provide protection against some root pathogens and herbivores. Neither partner can thrive without the other.

HOW IT AFFECTS HUMANS?

Without these symbiotic fungi, many types of forests would not exist. Forests provide food and shelter for many, many species of animals, fungi, and plants.

Trees also help regulate moisture and temperature across large regional areas, so loss of trees would significantly impact current and future climate.

WHAT IF FUNGI DISAPPEARED?

Trees and other plants in the forest absorb CO2 which gets translocated to their roots and into the fungal partners which results in long term carbon sequestration.

So, without fungi, and the trees that depend on them, CO2 would build up much faster than is currently the case, greatly exacerbating climate change impacts.