Mycorrhizal fungi are ecosystem engineers that sustain plant life and help regulate Earth's biogeochemical cycles1-3. However, in contrast to plants and animals, the global distribution of mycorrhizal fungal biodiversity is largely unknown, which limits our ability to monitor and protect key underground ecosystems4,5. Here we trained machine-learning algorithms on a global dataset of 25,000 geolocated soil samples comprising >2.8 billion fungal DNA sequences. We predicted arbuscular mycorrhizal and ectomycorrhizal fungal richness and rarity across terrestrial ecosystems. On the basis of these predictions, we generated high-resolution, global-scale maps and identified key reservoirs of highly diverse and endemic mycorrhizal communities. Intersecting protected areas with mycorrhizal hotspots indicated that less than 10% of predicted mycorrhizal richness hotspots currently exist in protected areas. Our results describe a largely hidden component of Earth's underground ecosystems and can help identify conservation priorities, set monitoring benchmarks and create specific restoration plans and land-management strategies.

Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment Section Ecology and Evolution Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment Section Systems Ecology Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

Centro de Investigación e Innovación para el Cambio Climático Universidad Santo Tomás Valdivia Chile

College of Science King Saud University Riyadh Saudi Arabia

Department of Biology Lund University Lund Sweden

Department of Biology Oxford University Oxford UK

Department of Biology Stanford University Stanford CA USA

Department of Earth System Science Stanford University Stanford CA USA

Falz Fein Biosphere Reserve Askania Nova Kherson Oblast Ukraine

Funga Public Benefit Corporation Austin TX USA

Fungi Foundation Brooklyn NY USA

Institute of Integrative Biology Department of Environmental Systems Science ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland

Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Mycology and Microbiology Center University of Tartu Tartu Estonia

Society for the Protection of Underground Networks Dover DE USA

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Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected

Advancing knowledge on the biogeography of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to support Sustainable Development Goal 15: Life on Land