Questão 70 - USP FUVEST - Simulado Oficial - 1ª Fase (2ª edição) 2027

Texto para a questão

 

    The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement was awarded to Dr Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist at Vrije University Amsterdam who has spent the past three decades studying the workings and significance of the soil’s circulatory system.

    Dr. Kiers studies mycorrhizal fungi, microbes that form vast, underground networks with carbon drawn from the roots of plants and trees.

    The fungal kingdom, which stands apart from plants and animals, contains anywhere from two million to five million species, including yeasts, mildew, lichens and mushrooms.

    In 2021, Dr. Kiers founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, or SPUN, a global network of researchers and “underground explorers” that works to identify and protect hot spots of fungal diversity.

    Why fungi? These underground ecosystems play a crucial role in regulating the climate. Soils store about 75 percent of Earth’s terrestrial carbon and contain close to 60 percent of Earth’s biodiversity.

    Mycorrhizal fungi form the basis of food chains for those aboveground organisms, which together generate more soil and nutrients. They draw carbon from plants and get it to stick to minerals underground, where it’s hard to release back into the atmosphere. The vast majority of crops form partnerships with mycorrhizal fungi and rely on them for their nutrients.

    These fungi also hold soil together; their bodies are woven into the aggregate and produce sticky chemicals that are hard to break down. Take away that scaffolding and soils would erode and disappear.

    People think they know what soil and dirt is. With highresolution imaging, we’re starting to make it visible and show that it’s alive. These are ecosystems with as much complexity as what’s happening aboveground.

The New York Times. 14 January 2026. Adaptado.

De acordo com o texto, a explicação sobre a interação entre fungos micorrízicos e minerais subterrâneos desenvolve a ideia de que