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Every year, plants move 3.58 gigatons of carbon to mycorrhizal fungi, their underground partners—enough, in fact, that if it were ice, it would cover 112 million NHL hockey rinks. However, a dominant scientific theory explaining that huge transfer as an economic market of sorts is likely incorrect, according to a new paper by a group of experts including a University of Alberta researcher.

According to the market perspective, carbon is traded for nutrients delivered by the fungi—an exchange of resources between partners, governed by economic principles.

However, the new research suggests rethinking how these environmentally important systems work.

"There's an assumption among many researchers that the exchange of carbon for nutrients is directly coupled, and that the amounts transferred are based on market economics. Markets are human constructs that don't seem to apply here," says Justine Karst, associate professor in the U of A's Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences and a co-author on the paper. "We found no evidence of trade."

The work is published in the journal New Phytologist.

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