JAKARTA GREEN SPINE TIMES The Hidden Network Beneath Our Feet. How Earth’s Underground Fungal System Could Shape the Future of Climate-Resilient Jakarta

SCIENCE | ECOLOGY | NATURE-BASED INFRASTRUCTURE

Published: August 2026

By Jakarta Green Spine Times Editorial

A Living Infrastructure Older Than Human Civilization

When people think about infrastructure, they imagine highways, MRT lines, bridges, tunnels, and skyscrapers.

Yet beneath every forest, park, and healthy landscape lies an even larger infrastructure—one that has existed for hundreds of millions of years.

Recent scientific research has produced the first global map of Earth’s underground mycorrhizal fungal networks, revealing an immense living system connecting plant roots across nearly every continent.

Scientists estimate that these microscopic fungal threads collectively extend for approximately 110 quadrillion kilometers, transporting water, nutrients, and carbon through the soil while supporting forests, agriculture, biodiversity, and global climate regulation.

Unlike engineered infrastructure, this network continuously repairs itself, adapts to environmental change, and supports life without consuming fossil fuels.

Nature’s Underground Internet

Mycorrhizal fungi form mutually beneficial partnerships with roughly 70 percent of all plant species.

Plants provide fungi with carbon produced through photosynthesis.

In return, fungi supply essential resources including:

• Water

• Nitrogen

• Phosphorus

• Potassium

• Trace minerals

These underground connections also improve soil structure, increase drought tolerance, and help plants survive environmental stress.

Because information and resources move through these interconnected fungal pathways, scientists often describe the system as the “Wood Wide Web.”

A Powerful Climate Ally

Healthy soils are among Earth’s largest natural carbon reservoirs.

According to the research, underground fungal networks:

• Store approximately 300 megatons of carbon within their biomass.

• Help move the equivalent of around 4 billion metric tons of CO₂ into soils every year through plant–fungus interactions.

• Improve soil fertility and ecosystem resilience.

• Support healthier forests, wetlands, and grasslands.

Researchers also observed that intensive agriculture and disturbed soils tend to have much lower fungal network density than intact natural ecosystems, emphasizing the importance of conserving living soils.

Why This Matters for Jakarta

Jakarta faces multiple environmental challenges simultaneously:

• Flooding

• Land subsidence

• Rising temperatures

• Declining biodiversity

• Limited green open space

• Increasing climate risks

While engineering solutions remain essential, ecological science suggests that resilient cities must also invest in the systems beneath the surface.

Healthy soil is not simply dirt.

It is living infrastructure.

Jakarta Green Spine Perspective

The Jakarta Green Spine vision is based on integrating engineering with ecological restoration.

Its long-term approach includes:

• Restoring river ecosystems

• Expanding urban forests

• Creating wetlands and sponge landscapes

• Improving groundwater infiltration

• Establishing biodiversity corridors

• Protecting living soils

Every tree planted along the Ciliwung River or Jakarta’s canal network has the potential to develop underground partnerships with beneficial fungi, naturally improving nutrient cycling, root development, soil stability, and vegetation health.

Visible green infrastructure and invisible biological infrastructure work together.

One cannot achieve its full potential without the other.

Building Cities From the Ground Down

Future climate-resilient cities should not measure infrastructure only by kilometers of roads or cubic meters of concrete.

They should also value:

• Living soils

• Healthy microbial ecosystems

• Native vegetation

• Biodiversity

• Functional wetlands

• Restored waterways

These natural systems increase water absorption, reduce erosion, support urban cooling, and strengthen long-term environmental resilience.

Looking Ahead

Nature has spent hundreds of millions of years perfecting one of the most efficient infrastructure systems ever created.

The challenge for modern cities is not replacing it—but learning to work alongside it.

For Jakarta, investing in ecological infrastructure beneath the surface may prove just as important as building infrastructure above it.

As the city plans for a more climate-resilient future, the strongest foundations may be the ones we cannot see.

Editor’s Note

This article is inspired by recently published scientific research mapping the Earth’s underground mycorrhizal fungal networks. The scientific findings relate to global fungal ecology, carbon cycling, and plant–fungus interactions. The discussion of Jakarta Green Spine represents the editorial perspective of Jakarta Green Spine Times on how emerging ecological science can inform future nature-based urban planning and climate resilience strategies.