Climate change: How fungi bombs made in Scotland can boost biodiversity and help reforest the earth

A Scottish biotech start-up is creating magic mushroom pellets which could have a profound effect on the survival of new woodlands.

Multiple complex relationships are playing out unnoticed in the ground beneath our feet every minute of every day all around the globe.

These unseen interactions are crucial for the health of soils and everything that grows in them.

In a forest, for instance, an underground network of fungi – known as the wood-wide web – connects the roots of trees and other plants in the habitat in a mutually beneficial arrangement that allows nutrients and water to be exchanged.

This subterranean community of fungi – known as mycorrhiza – plays an important role in the growth, development and resilience of a woodland.

Now an innovative Scottish firm is harnessing the super powers of the underground fungal kingdom to revolutionise tree-planting efforts at home and abroad, with a mission to help reforest the earth.

Rhizocore, based on the outskirts of Edinburgh, creates bespoke ‘fungi bombs’ – or Rhizopellets – which are hand-crafted to contain the optimum mix of mycorrhiza for a particular site and the trees which will be grown there.

Chief executive and founder Toby Parkes, a biologist and biochemist, has high hopes for the company, which was set up in 2021 and has just completed its first full year of operation.

An underground network of mycorrhizal fungi – known as the wood-wide web – connects the roots of trees and other plants in a forest in a mutually beneficial arrangement that allows nutrients and water to be exchanged, benefiting growth, development and resilience

Already more than 200,000 trees have been treated with locally sourced symbiotic fungi at planting sites across the UK.

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The scientist was slightly surprised there was a gap in the market.

“I just assumed that the forestry industry would be using these organisms in planting, given the several decades of research that have gone on allowing us to comprehend how important symbiotic fungi are for supporting forests,” he said.

A pioneering Scottish firm is harnessing the super powers of the underground fungal kingdom to revolutionise tree-planting efforts at home and abroad, with a mission to help reforest the earth

“Turns out the question wasn’t how we could improve the use of symbiotic organisms in tree-planting but rather how we could get these organisms into the system in the first place.”

Rhizocore makes its pellets from ectomycorrhizal fungi – species that associate specifically with trees.

There are thousands of species, and each year new ones are discovered.

“We collect and freeze fungi from existing forests close to the area that is going to be planted with new trees,” Mr Parkes said.

Toby Parkes, a biologist and biochemist, is chief executive and founder of Scottish biotech firm Rhizocore

“We take the fungi back to our laboratory in Edinburgh, where we process it to make our Rhizopellets.

“The whole process takes around 13 weeks before we have grown enough fungal biomass from one mushroom to supply to tree planting operations – from one mushroom we can make millions of pellets.”

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Tree-planting is high on the environmental agenda worldwide, to reverse deforestation, boost biodiversity and soak up greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the survival rate of new woodlands has dropped as the impacts of climate change ramp up – losses of 50 per cent have become more frequent during the past decade due to extreme weather events.

According to Mr Parkes, when young saplings don’t get the nutrients they need they are more likely to succumb to drought and soil-borne diseases, growth rates plummet and mortality rates soar.

Inside the Rhizocore lab, on the outskirt of Edinburgh, where special fungi pellets are tailor-made to boost the survival chances of particular trees and forests

Forests with healthy mycorrhizal networks also have greater biodiversity and bigger potential for locking up climate-warming carbon.

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Adding the right organisms at a planting site can also help restore the wider local environment, Mr Parkes explains.

“We use native, locally sourced fungal strains, meaning that we are re-establishing populations of fungi every time one of our pellets is used during tree planting,” he said.

“Our team of specialist mycologists determine the best combination of species and strains to supply to our customers from our collections or they sometimes decide to collect strains close to the planting site to ensure that we only expand local populations.

“Once our pellets are used these fungi then grow and will produce mushrooms that spread spores into the newly planted woodland, creating a new population of these fungi.”

Rhizocore has already created tailor-made Rhizopellets for numerous high-profile organisations in Scotland and the UK, including forestry management giant Tilhill, the Woodland Trust, Highlands Rewilding and state-owned Forestry and Land Scotland, as well as working on a native birch restoration project in Ireland.

And despite its short existence, it has already expanded to the other side of the world with a new division Down Under.

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Paul Anderson, head of business development for the firm, is proud of what has been achieved so far.

“We recently set up operations in Australia, with our base in Sydney, New South Wales.

“We produce our pellets locally, so pellets for Australia will be produced in Australia.”

He added: “Overall, the mycorrhizal fungi play a vital role in maintaining the balance and vitality of forest ecosystems, highlighting the interconnectedness of all living systems.”