Discover the ecological importance and the role of fungi in the ecosystem

NARRATOR: It may seem that fungi play a specialized and limited role in the scheme of things. In fact, however, fungi are vital to world ecology. Many act as decomposers, breaking down the dead bodies of plants and animals and recycling the nutrients they hold. When a fungus grows on a dead organism, the chemicals released by the hyphae, which break down the tissue, also leak nitrogen, phosphorous, and other nutrients into the soil, as well as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The fungal decay makes these nutrients and carbon dioxide available to green plants for photosynthesis, and it completes an important cycle of raw materials in the ecosystem.

To see a mushroom or mold, it’s easy to think of them as just another lowly creature scratching out survival. But really the fungi have been an important part of the living world for billions of years, and their presence has had much to do with the way the world has evolved.