Is Santa's sleigh zero carbon? The answer lies in reindeer poo

Santa's sleigh is famously pulled by eight reindeer, nine if you include the luminous Rudolf who pitches in when it's foggy. The classic eight are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Vixen and Blitzen. Those last ...

Fungi could manipulate bacteria to enrich soil with nutrients

A team of researchers from the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) has discovered a distinct group of bacteria that may help fungi and plants acquire soil nutrients. The findings could point the way to cost-effective and eco-friendly ...

Fungi use ingenious strategies to forage underground

When you think of fungi, you'll probably picture a huddle of chubby brown mushrooms, or the large, red-capped toadstools you stumble across in the woods. In doing so, you're reducing fungi to their reproductive organs—tasty ...

Ecologists study how soil fungi respond to wildfire

In the wake of the 2017 North Bay fires, the golden hills of Santa Rosa, California, were unrecognizable. Smoky, seared and buried under ash, the landscape appeared desolate, save for some ghostly, blackened—but still alive—oak ...

Invisible fungi revealed by their genetic material

How can new life forms that we cannot see be discovered? Using a novel method based on looking for DNA in soil samples, researchers at Uppsala University have revealed the existence of two hitherto unknown, but very common ...

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