Mycorrhizal fungi are tiny fungi in the soil that form symbiotic partnerships with plant roots. They help plants absorb water and nutrients and receive carbon in return.
Restoring Woodland Habitats and Natural Woodland Processes
We’re working to revive Cumbria’s woodlands, focusing on increasing native trees, expanding woodland area and creating habitats that support a diverse range of wildlife.
Our monitoring tracks everything from tree growth to species diversity in these new wood pastures.
Increased Growth and Survival of Trees
We’re tracking tree recruitment and survival across our core sites to measure the success of our woodland restoration.
Expanding Woodland and Woodland Pasture Areas
By monitoring the growth of woodland and wood pasture areas, we can see how restoration efforts spread across Cumbria’s landscape.
Reduce Deer Browsing Impacts
Managing deer populations helps protect young trees. We’re monitoring the impact of grazing on tree survival to support a healthy woodland.
Species Diversity in Wood Pastures
Creating wood pastures enhances habitats for moths, birds and other wildlife. In 2023, we conducted 96 moth trapping nights across 24 sites, capturing over 2,600 moths representing 112 species. We’re also counting birds using point methods to monitor shifts in biodiversity.
Food Web Complexity in Restored Wood Pastures
Cumbria Connect is studying how food webs change in restored areas, by sampling predatory spiders and beetles and identifying their prey through DNA sampling. This work, which stated with a PhD project in 2024, will help us understand if restoration is building more resilient ecosystems.
Research Project: Unlocking the role of fungi in woodland recovery
From February 2026, Cumbria Connect will be exploring how fungal networks influence the success of tree planting in Cumbria’s upland landscapes.
The Project
Mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic partnerships with roughly 80% of all terrestrial plant species, living alongside plant roots and supplying essential nutrients and water to their hosts. In Cumbria’s upland fringe, the transitional area between upland fells and lowland farmland, long-term grazing has altered the soil’s mycorrhizal communities.
Plants and mycorrhizal fungi have co-evolved over millions of years, and certain plants, including many tree species, associate with specific mycorrhizal fungal partners. Our research will explore whether missing fungal communities become the factor that limits restoration success in upland landscapes. This project allows us to test that directly and to understand how below-ground recovery reacts with changes in grazing management and tree planting.
This research is supported by the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme through its Advancing Restoration Knowledge Grant and delivered in partnership with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUB) and the RSPB.
The hidden networks that could transform woodland creation in Cumbria
Just beneath our boots lies a world we rarely stop to think about – a living network of fungi that helps shape how landscapes recover.
These underground partners are the quiet power behind thriving woodlands, but healthy fungal networks are often absent in deforested landscapes. Without them, many young trees struggle to get the nutrients and water they need. It means that even well-planned restoration efforts can fail before the saplings reach their first winter.
At Cumbria Connect we want to change that. We’ve just secured new funding through the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme (ELSP) to explore how mycorrhizal fungi influence the success of woodland creation. The project brings together our science team, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) and the RSPB at Wild Haweswater. Together we’ll uncover how these fungal communities work, how they respond to land management and how we can support them during restoration.
Why fungi matter for treescapes
Many of our native trees form essential partnerships with Ectomycorrhizal Fungi. These fungi wrap around root tips and extend vast filaments through the soil, increasing the tree’s reach for nutrients and water. In return the fungi receive carbon provided by the tree.
It’s a two-way agreement that has shaped forests for millions of years.
Yet many upland soils in the UK lack the fungal partners that trees like oak and birch trees depend on. Decades of intensive grazing have left us with grassland dominated by a different mycorrhizal group – one that suits pasture plants like grasses more than temperate tree species. When we plant trees into these soils they’re often missing the partners they need to get established.
This project will help us understand which fungal species are present, where the gaps are and how we can restore the underground communities that support healthy treescapes.
How we’ll uncover the hidden picture
Over the next year we’ll collect soil from our new grazing experiment, long-term grazing exclusion sites and Naddle Forest at Wild Haweswater. We’ll use DNA sequencing to identify which mycorrhizal fungi are present and how they differ between land types.
Naddle Forest, an ancient woodland and one of Cumbria’s largest remaining fragments of temperate rainforest, acts as a living reference point – a glimpse of what native fungal communities look like when woodland has been allowed to mature and function naturally.
Alongside the soil work, we’ll run a nursery trial where saplings will be grown with an inoculation of woodland soil that contains forest mycorrhizal fungal communities. Later they’ll be planted into the landscape so we can track their growth and survival over the years.
This work will help us answer questions that matter for woodland creation across the UK:
- How quickly do mycorrhizal fungal communities recover after grazing stops?
- What happens belowground when we shift from pasture to wood pasture?
- Can local soil inoculants help young trees get off to a stronger start?
What this means for the future
The findings will feed into a practical toolkit that helps restoration teams consider the underground conditions that influence planting success. It will support better planning across Cumbria and offer fresh insights for restoration projects in other landscapes from the Lake District to the Cairngorms.
Tree planting is only part of the story. For woodlands to take root and thrive we also need the living networks beneath them. By shining a light on this hidden world we’ll be able to create richer, more resilient treescapes that support wildlife, store carbon and help communities reconnect with nature.
We’ll share updates as the work unfolds. Watch this space – there’s a whole world beneath us waiting to be discovered.
Q&A
What are mycorrhizal fungi?
Why are they important for restoration?
Many plants, including trees, depend on these fungi to survive. Without the right fungal partners, restoration efforts such as tree planting can fail even if everything looks right above ground.
What is the difference between AM and ECM fungi?
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi form symbioses with 70% of all plant species, and in temperate environments this mainly includes grasses and herbs.
Ectomycorrhizal fungi are prevalent in UK woodlands. They form symbioses with temperate tree species, including oak and birch, and are vital for woodland ecosystems.
Why does this matter in the upland fringe?
Much of the upland fringe has been heavily grazed for generations. This means soils often contain mycorrhizal fungi suited to grasslands but lack the fungal partners that trees need. Understanding this helps explain why woodland recovery can be slow or uneven.
Can fungal communities recover naturally?
In some places they can, especially where trees regenerate naturally and grazing pressure is reduced. In other areas recovery may be very slow, which is why researchers are testing whether local soil inoculation can help.
How is Cumbria Connect studying this?
The project combines soil sampling, DNA analysis and nursery experiments to map fungal communities and test ways to support tree establishment.
How will this help people on the ground?
The findings will feed into practical guidance for land managers, helping them decide when natural regeneration is enough and when extra support below ground may be needed.
Contact the team
If you’ve got a question for our science team or want to learn more about the ecological monitoring and experiments we’re involved in please get in touch.
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