Recycling strategies of fungi can affect how forests store carbon

Lund University

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Some fungi are wasteful, while others recycle – and this can determine how much carbon is stored in a forest. Researchers at Lund University have now revealed how fungi manage their mycelium, the network that builds the structure of fungus. The results could provide new insights into the carbon cycle and climate.

Researchers have investigated how fungi recycle their mycelium when they grow. Using microfluidic chips – units that handle and analyse extremely small volumes of fluid through microscopic channels – the researchers could show that the availability of nutrients among fungi affects how much of the mycelium is recycled.

“The results show that the studied fungi can be divided into groups based on two clear strategies. There is a ‘wasteful’ group that leaves large amounts of inactive mycelium behind, and a ‘frugal’ group that quickly recycles the major part of its mycelium during growth,” says Dimitrios Floudas, researcher in biology at Lund University.

The different strategies reflect the ecology of the fungi. The wasteful species colonise short-lived wood substrates such as twigs and branches and often have short lifecycles. Their “live fast, die young” approach means they do not have time to invest energy in reusing nutrients in the remaining mycelium.

By contract, the frugal species grow on large logs and therefore have longer lifecycles. By recycling mycelium they can preserve nutrients, but also reduce losses to hungry springtails and mites as well as competing microbes. The recycling of mycelium actually reduces the amount of available nutrients for these organisms.

“The most surprising aspect was that species that we perceive as slow on a macro level – fungi that grow on tree trunks for several years without dying out – were fastest at recycling their mycelium at the microscale. At the same time they always left small parts of their network behind,   a kind of “stand-by-mycelium” ready to grow again if the resources suddenly increase,” says Kristin Aleklett, researcher in biology at Lund University.

The discovery of fungal ecology and strategies for recycling of mycelium is important for climate research. The new study paves the way for more precise estimations of how different fungi contribute to carbon sequestration. The results provide a unique insight into the hidden life of fungi and show how microscopic organisms can affect large ecosystems and the carbon cycle.

“Fungi play a crucial role in carbon sequestration in our forests. Different species do completely different jobs. It clearly shows why biodiversity is so important,” says Dimitrios Floudas.

---

Journal

New Phytologist

DOI

10.1111/nph.70957 

Article Title

Differences in mycelial turnover and persistence of wood-decay fungi at the microscale

 

Study creates most precise map yet of agricultural emissions, charts path to reduce hotspots

Cornell University

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

• New map breaks down agricultural emissions by crop and source
• East Asia and Pacific contributed to about half of the total agricultural greenhouse gas
• Rice alone contributed 43% of cropland emissions
• Regions that produce a lot of food are often high emitters
• Authors says that mitigation planning should take productivity into account

ITHACA, N.Y. – To lower agricultural emissions, policymakers and communities first need to pinpoint the sources. Not just by country but crop by crop, field by field. In a study published Feb. 13 in Nature Climate Change, researchers have synthesized data from multiple ground sources and models to map global cropland emissions at high resolution – down to about 10 kilometers – while breaking down emissions by crop and source and identifying regions for more precise mitigation.

“This is an absolute global synthesis of all the information you need, by country, by production system, for calculating greenhouse gas emissions – it’s been a significant undertaking,” said senior author Mario Herrero, Cornell University professor of global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Croplands constitute 12% of land use globally and account for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions within the agricultural sector. But the last effort to map global cropland emissions dates to 2000. Since then, the sector has grown, management practices have changed, and researchers have many more tools to model complex systems.

The new and improved maps incorporate historical data and models, ground and remote sensing, inventory surveys, hydrological information and more. With this integrated data set, the researchers calculated that croplands emitted the greenhouse gas equivalent of 2.5 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2020, with East Asia and Pacific contributing about half of the total, followed by South Asia, Europe and Central Asia, which collectively contributed 30%.

The data captured emissions across 46 crop classes, but four crops – rice, maize, oil palm and wheat – accounted for nearly three-quarters of cropland emissions, with rice leading at 43%. The source of the emissions differed depending on the crop; the main culprits were drained peatlands for palm oil production (35%), flooded rice paddies (35%) and synthetic fertilizer used in high-production areas (23%).

The researchers said the data highlights the need to tailor mitigation strategies depending on the crop and emissions source, writing that controlled rewetting of peatlands, shifts in the management of flooded rice paddies and optimized fertilizer use could significantly reduce emissions in their respective regions and contexts.

And the biggest hotspots are in Asia, Herrero said.

“It’s all about rice. That’s where the biggest sources and the biggest opportunities are,” said Herrero, also a senior faculty fellow and scholar with the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “Some of the more nutritious foods, fruits and vegetables, have way lower footprints. I was surprised by the importance of peatland areas, too, which was much larger than expected.”

The data underscored a correlation between high food production and emissions: Regions that produce a lot of food were often high emitters, and the authors argue that mitigation planning should take productivity into account.

“A lot of studies find the regional hotspot and then say that we need to target this region for mitigation, but we think that may be unfair without considering the production side,” said first author and postdoctoral researcher Peiyu Cao. “One of the innovations of this paper is that we link the food production to the emissions to show how efficient the production system is.”

Herrero said the maps will ultimately allow countries and communities to address emissions at a hyper-local level.

“It’s really local people who have to act,” he said. “What’s unprecedented here is that these maps provide really a crucial subnational analysis on where you have mitigation opportunities, which is important: Funds for mitigation are scarce, and we need to prioritize.”

Cornell University has dedicated television and audio studios available for media interviews.

-30-

---

Journal

Nature Climate Change

Article Publication Date

13-Feb-2026

 

When heat flows like water

EPFL researchers have shown theoretically that, in highly ordered materials, heat can flow toward warmer regions without violating the laws of thermodynamics. Their work could help design electronics that minimize heat loss

Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Vortex-induced heat backflow (top) in a simulated 2D graphite strip, compared with conventional heat flow (bottom). 2026 THEOS EPFL CC BY SA

view more 

Credit: 2026 THEOS EPFL CC BY SA

To understand how heat normally flows, you could study the second law of thermodynamics – or wrap your hands around a hot mug of coffee. Both tell us that heat tends to flow toward cooler regions. As a material’s thermal energy increases, its atoms vibrate, and quantum mechanics describes these vibrations as phonons: quasiparticles that transport heat. Normally, collisions between phonons cause heat to dissipate slowly. But in highly ordered, pure crystals, these collisions can result in a fluid-like, directional heat flow known as phonon hydrodynamics.

Researchers from the group of Theory and Simulation of Materials, led by Nicola Marzari, in EPFL’s School of Engineering have demonstrated theoretically that hydrodynamic heat flow can cause heat to swirl into vortices, and even move from cooler regions back toward warmer ones. Using simulations, they show how to maximize hydrodynamic heat flow in a 2D strip of crystalline graphite. In addition to revealing the underlying physics of this phenomenon for the first time, their analytical model offers a powerful tool for harnessing heat ‘backflow’ to manage thermal energy in electronic devices.

“Previous work relied on numerical modelling, which describes temperature patterns but doesn’t fully explain how physical quantities influence each other,” explains first author and former EPFL researcher Enrico Di Lucente, now a postdoc at Columbia University. “Thanks to our analytical framework, we have shown that heat backflow is maximized when the flow is nearly incompressible. Our approach will allow us to guide experimentalists in developing electronic devices that leverage this effect to manage heat more efficiently.”

The researchers say their work, recently published in Physical Review Letters, could impact heat management across multiple sectors, ranging from consumer electronics and industry to energy storage, data centers, and cloud computing.

A path to cooler, faster electronics

Although experimental evidence of phonon hydrodynamics dates back to the 1960s, researchers have lacked the fundamental theoretical understanding required to fully exploit the fluid-like nature of hydrodynamic heat flow.

The EPFL team’s analytical framework reveals that the temperature profile of a hydrodynamic system can be broken down into vorticity (how heat flow swirls) and compressibility (how it is squeezed). This explains why heat backflow is maximized when compressibility is minimized: when heat flow is incompressible, it cannot be squeezed or bunched up when it encounters resistance but is instead redirected backward. This localized reversal enables more efficient, coordinated flow by reducing heat buildup, which can lead to overheating and impaired performance in electronic devices.

“In hydrodynamic heat backflow, heat flows from cooler regions to warmer ones, leading to a negative temperature difference and overall negative thermal resistance across the device,” Di Lucente says. “This effect is very small, but now we can design experiments to maximize it, potentially changing how we think about energy loss in electronic systems. For example, you could imagine a smartphone with a hydrodynamic component to direct thermal energy away from the battery, so it doesn’t overheat.”

Marzari emphasizes that the formulations can be used to study any other microscopic carrier, from electrons to more complex quantum particles, and that the ease with which these carriers travel can be calculated directly from quantum mechanics’ fundamental equations (first principles).

“In addition to this impactful theoretical development, our first-principles simulations provide a realistic description of physical systems quickly and inexpensively compared to the cost of building new experimental setups. At the same time, they can indicate where experimental efforts should be focused to develop more heat-efficient electronics,” he says.

Funding
This research was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Grant No. CR-SII5 189924 (“Hydronics” project) and NCCR MARVEL, a National Centre of Competence in Research, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Grant No. 205602).

---

Journal

Physical Review Letters

DOI

10.1103/g9dx-hjyn 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Article Title

Vortices and backflow in hydrodynamic heat transport

Article Publication Date

6-Feb-2026

 

Study confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding

New research confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding as temperatures continue to rise

University of Exeter

FacebookXLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

New research confirms Arctic peatlands are expanding as temperatures continue to rise. 

The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the planet, with average temperatures increasing by about 4°C in the last four decades. 

The new study, led by the University of Exeter, shows peatlands have expanded since 1950, with some peatland edges moving by more than a metre a year. 

Given that the study covered a broad range of Arctic conditions – with 91 samples from 12 sites in the European and Canadian Arctic – the researchers say peatland expansion is likely to be happening across the Arctic.  

“We know the ecology of Arctic regions is changing – with more plant growth due to climate change – and certain plants play a key role in forming peatlands,” said lead author Dr Josie Handley, now at the University of Cambridge. 

“We used peatland cores (tube-shaped samples of the soil) to assess whether Arctic peatlands are expanding outwards, and – if so – how quickly this has happened, and whether it varies regionally. 

“Our results indicate that the peatlands in our study now cover a greater area than at any point during the past 200-300 years – and potentially earlier – and are actively accumulating new peat. 

“This strongly suggests that peatlands have expanded across the Arctic – and that this is linked to rising temperatures, as the primary period of expansion at all sites occurred during the post-industrial period of climate warming.” 

Peatlands are waterlogged ecosystems that store vast amounts of carbon. They currently cover about 3% of Earth’s surface but they store about 600 billion tons of carbon – more than all the world’s forest biomass combined. 

While the study showed peatland edges are shifting, it did not assess total area – so more research is needed to discover how much ground is covered by the growing patchwork of Arctic peatlands. 

Professor Angela Gallego-Sala, from the University of Exeter, said: “Peatland expansion across the Arctic will profoundly change the fate of carbon in the region, and in the atmosphere. 

“More carbon storage will help to slow climate change, but extreme future warming could cause loss of peatlands and the release of that carbon.”  

Dr Katherine Crichton, also from the University of Exeter, added: “The Arctic is being targeted by various industries, including shipping and mining.  

“Our study confirms that Arctic peatlands are expanding, highlighting the growing importance of these fragile ecosystems, and the urgent need for them to be protected and valued.” 

The study – which builds on previous researched based on satellite data – is part of a project called Increased Accumulation in Arctic Peatlands (ICAAP), funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. The project involves a number of international collaborators, including Queens University Belfast, Université du Québec at Montréal and at Trois-Rivières, University of Helsinki and University of Hawaii at Mauna Loa.  

The paper, published in the journal Global Change Biology, is entitled: “Pan-Arctic peatlands have expanded during recent warming.”  

---

Journal

Global Change Biology

DOI

10.1111/gcb.70684 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Pan-Arctic peatlands have expanded during recent warming

Article Publication Date

13-Feb-2026