Methane capture

A recent study from the University of Minnesota concluded there may be "an overlooked, potentially large role" for the reishi mushroom (Ganoderma lucidum) to capture methane from the atmosphere. In lab tests, researchers found that G. lucidum had a 79 percent effectiveness rate of removing methane from the air compared to activated carbon, another compound commonly used for capturing methane. However, when they tested reishi’s effectiveness when it was placed directly in soil, it couldn't sustain the effectiveness. Theorizing that native soil organisms were outcompeting the fungi, they replaced the live reishi with dead, with the idea that the dead fungi wouldn’t complete for nutrients, and the result was an even greater efficiency of methane capture—84 percent relative to activated carbon. Because dead fungi are plentiful in soil around the world, the researchers propose that these dead fungi could already be filtering methane from the atmosphere.^{7 8} 

Crude oil decontamination

In 2016, a team of researchers published results from a field study in the Ecuadorian Amazon. They were testing for the total petroleum hydrocarbon degradation potential (TPH) of crude-oil contaminated soil treated with a combination of two bacterial and two fungal strains (the fungi were from the Geomyces genus, commonly found in cold environments). After a 90-day treatment period, the success rate was 87.45 percent removal of TPHs in the soil samples, and the results “clearly suggest” to the study’s authors that such a mixture could be “effectively used for large-scale bioremediation of sites contaminated with crude oil.”⁹

“Fungi are the grand recyclers of the planet and the vanguard species in habitat restoration.”
- Paul Stamets¹⁴

Wildfire cleanup

In the aftermath of the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in California, area resident, Cheetah Tchudi, launched the non-profit Butte Remediation, providing no-cost fungal bioremediation services to those who weren’t eligible for the state’s cleanup services.¹⁰ During Butte Remediation’s cleanup of properties devastated by the fire, Tchudi measured toxins in the ash at several sites, testing (among other things) for heavy metals, dioxins, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), a persistent environmental pollutant with a range of potentially adverse human health effects. He then incorporated oyster mushroom spawn bags into the debris and tested again after approximately six months. Although the results on heavy metal decontamination were mixed, after six months of oyster mushroom treatment, the PAHs at one test site, which had persisted for a year after the fire, were eliminated. And at another test site there was a reduction in the Toxic Equivalency Value (TEQ) of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds from 8.02 to 1.62. The World Health Organization’s safe and allowable threshold for TEQs is 1.0.¹¹

Soil brought back to life

Perhaps one of the most vivid snapshots of mycoremediation’s potential is an experiment in Washington state, conducted several decades ago in partnership with renowned mycologist Paul Stamets. It consisted of diesel contaminated mounds of soil treated with either enzymes, bacteria, oyster mushroom mycelium, or left untreated as a control. After sixteen weeks, the PAHs in the oyster mushroom treatment had been reduced from 10,000 ppm to less than 200 ppm, allowing for plant life, worms, and other species to thrive again on this previously toxic mound of soil, while the soil treated by other methods showed little or no improvement.^{12 13}

References

1. “The Wood Wide Web: Underground Fungi-Plant Communication Network.” The Aggie Transcript, 25 July 2020, https://aggietranscript.ucdavis.edu/the-wood-wide-web-underground-fungi….
2. “Excerpt from Mycelium Running.” Penguin Random House Canada, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/196974/mycelium-running-by-paul….
3. McClenaghan, Beverly, and July 23. “Talking Trees: How Do Trees Communicate?” Let's Talk Science, 23 July 2019, https://letstalkscience.ca/educational-resources/stem-in-context/talkin….
4. National Geographic Society. “Decomposers.” National Geographic Society, 17 Dec. 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/decomposers/.
5. Kulshreshtha, Shweta, et al. “Mushroom as a Product and Their Role in Mycoremediation.” AMB Express, Springer, 1 Apr. 2014, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052754/.
6. Akhtar, Nahid, and M. Amin-ul Mannan. “Mycoremediation: Expunging Environmental Pollutants.” Biotechnology Reports, Elsevier, 9 Apr. 2020, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215017X19307003.
7. Sabuda, Mary. “Using Reishi Mushrooms to Filter Methane out of the Atmosphere.” Sciworthy, 27 July 2021, https://sciworthy.com/using-reishi-mushrooms-to-filter-methane-out-of-t….
8. Liew, Feng Jin, and Jonathan S. Schilling. “High‐Efficiency Methane Capture by Living Fungi and Dried Fungal Hyphae (Necromass).” ACSESS, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 29 Oct. 2020, https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jeq2.20136.
9. “Microbial Degradation of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Crude Oil: A Field-Scale Study at the Low-Land Rainforest of Ecuador.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09593330.2016.1270356.
10. “Cheetah Tchudifarmer, Rancher, Consultant, Citizen Scientist.” Butte Remediation, https://butteremediation.com/about/.
11. “Bioremediation in the Wake of the Camp Fire.” Butte Remediation, https://butteremediation.com/backgroundresearch/.
12. Stamets, Paul. “The Petroleum Problem.” Fungi Perfecti, Fungi Perfecti, 3 June 2010, https://fungi.com/blogs/articles/the-petroleum-problem.
13. Miller, Kenneth. “How Mushrooms Can Save the World.” Discover Magazine, Discover Magazine, 9 May 2020, https://www.discovermagazine.com/environment/how-mushrooms-can-save-the….
14. “Paul Stamets Quotes.” BrainyQuote, Xplore, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/paul_stamets_571129#:~:text=Paul%20S….