Dirt Matters – A journey in the mycobiome

The need to produce high quality food while minimising environmental damage is one of the biggest challenges for Australian agriculturalists. Healthy biological soils are crucial to plant health including our food crops. In turn, human health depends on high food quality and hence good soil health.

Modern agriculture with its intensive use of chemicals, fertilisers and mechanical disturbance has largely eliminated soil organisms. However, innovative farmers and gardeners are turning things around by fostering fungi and other organisms within soils. Central to this is an understanding symbioses between plants, fungi and their kin.

This talk provides an overview of the vital significance of fungi in soils and their roles in creating soil architecture, retaining water, increasing nutrient availability and maximising drought resistance. Greater attention to fungal-plant relationships can help us build resilience of our ecosystems, especially at a time of changing climate and water scarcity.