ERC Starting Grant: Mycorrhizal Types and Soil Carbon Storage: A mechanistic theory of fungal mediated soil organic matter cycling in temperate forests (MYCO-SoilC) Carbon is the building block of all living things. Precious carbon atoms are continuously recycled, from the atmosphere to the ground, and back again. Most ground carbon is stored in rocks and sediment and a lot of it derives from photosynthesising plants. The process may involve a mediator, mycorrhizal fungi, with which most terrestrial plants live in symbiotic relationships. Understanding the role of mycorrhizal fungi in the carbon cycle is critical to modelling and predicting climate change. The EU-funded MYCO-SoilC project will characterize mycorrhizal-mediated carbon turnover, thereby facilitating predictions of soil-climate feedback to inform climate change modelling.
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