This article is also available in Italian / Questo articolo è disponibile anche in italiano
Funga is a startup that harnesses recent developments in mycology to increase the carbon storage potential of commercial pine plantations. It was founded by Colin Averill, a world-renowned expert in mycorrhizae, the fungal networks that form symbiotic relationships with tree roots, allowing them to grow more quickly and better adapt to climate change.
The company generates profits by selling credits based on the additional carbon stored by trees after soils have been inoculated with fungal hyphae, microscopic facilitators of soil health, chosen by Funga's scientists with the help of algorithms and machine learning. Modern DNA-sequencing and machine learning technologies are combined with the latest research on the forest microbiome, to ensure that the right communities of native and biodiverse mycorrhizal fungi are used in the most suitable place.
The US company's proposal is simple: Funga's scientists find out which soil microbiome is the most suitable to stimulate the growth of a certain plant species, and then they transplant it into the impoverished soils where commercial pines are grown. The inoculation of the soil drives plants to grow more quickly, thus obtaining higher-quality wood, more carbon sequestration, and more resilient forest ecology.
"There’s strong reason to believe that the trees [in unsuccessful tree-planting projects] may be missing their microbial partners, especially when they’re planted in degraded, ex-agricultural landscapes...", says dr Averill, CEO Funga. "Many trees can’t establish in the wild at all, if their symbiotic partners are missing."
After closing a 4-million-dollar round of financing in 2023, the Texan company is currently transplanting healthy communities of soil microorganisms from natural forests into plantations of Pinus taeda, the most commercially important timber species in the United States, used for furniture, composite panels, poles, beams, and other applications.
Website:
Name:
Funga
Sector:
Carbon sequestration
Pros:
Harnessing the fungal forest microbiome to improve silviculture outcomes
Features:
Sale of credits based on the extra carbon sequestered after enhancing microbial forest biodiversity
Cover: photo by Funga