Beneath the plants, a hidden workforce recovers: six years of soil fungi healing after restoration

Up to 75% of the world's soils are worn out — and planting trees, it turns out, is only the visible half of healing them. Flinders University researchers in Australia went back to restored sites six years on and listened to what was happening underground. In research published in Molecular Ecology, they found the soil's fungi — the hidden workforce that cycles nutrients and holds ecosystems together — still quietly recovering their function years after planting, even when the full community is not yet back; land farmed hard in the past heals slower, its rich soils a lingering barrier. A companion study even 'listens' to soil with a low-cost acoustic kit, identifying insects by their sounds. Lead researcher Professor Martin Breed's message is patient and hopeful: restoration works, but it is a long game — and now we can measure the underground half of it.

SDG 15 · Life on land