Forests, fungi and a safari in the soil

Did you know that plants and fungi can help us to fight climate change?

Our scientists will show you how trees send carbon belowground to the fungi that live on their roots and explain how the relationship between plants and fungi can help us in the bid to fight climate change.

Excavate the soil below our model tree and explore how the carbon from the tree flows from the roots into the fungal hyphae, powering the growth of mushrooms and feeding the bugs that eat the mycelium. Learn about how trees use this fungal network to send nutrients and signals to other plants, and how some plants have evolved to tap into this network to steal carbon instead of making their own!

You will also have the opportunity to control your own microscope to get a close up look at these fungal associations on real seedlings, and go on a soil safari to see springtails, worms and millipedes that live belowground in forest soils.