11 of the Most Amazing Facts About the Environment

Occupying an estimated 17% of Earth’s land surface, the Taiga, also known as the boreal forest, is Earth’s largest terrestrial biome. It wraps in a broad circumpolar belt around the Northern Hemisphere, blanketing the northern reaches of North America, Europe, and Asia.

In 2020, FAO’s Global Forest Resources Assessment reported that the boreal climatic domain covers about 27% of global forest area. 

What happens in boreal forests is globally consequential. Their trees, soils, wetlands, peatlands, and permafrost store vast amounts of carbon and provide habitat for unique wildlife across some of the world’s largest remaining forest landscapes. 

Did you know salmon bring nutrients from the ocean to the forest? After spending much of their lives at sea, Pacific salmon return to the freshwater streams where they were born to spawn. Eventually, if they are consumed by bears, eagles, insects, and other wildlife, their nutrients enter into the forest web of life, helping fertilize the same forests that shade their streams.

The connection runs the other way, too. In the Pacific Northwest, reforestation efforts have been underway for several years now to restore forests along the streams salmon depend on. Tree planting and restoring riparian zones (the areas where land meets a river or stream) is a simple and effective solution for protecting salmon stocks. When salmon populations are healthy, there’s more food for the endangered Southern Resident Orca. In nature, ecosystems that appear separate are often linked by the movement of nutrients, water, and living organisms.

There’s a lot more to soil than meets the eye. It’s a living ecosystem filled with roots, fungi, bacteria, worms, insects, mites, and many other organisms. 

A 2023 global analysis estimated that soil is likely home to about 59% of Earth’s species, although researchers emphasized that this is an estimate.

Still, estimates so far show that soil biodiversity includes 99% of Enchytraeidae worms, 90% of fungi, 86% of plants, more than 50% of bacteria, and 3% of mammals.

Even more astounding is that we are still only scratching at the surface of understanding what lives underground; the researchers suggest the true percentage could be higher still.

About 97% of Earth’s water is found in the oceans, where it is salty. Of the three percent of fresh water on the planet, 2% is frozen in glaciers and ice caps, a fraction of a percent exists as water vapor, and less than 1% is in liquid form.

The United Nations narrows that margin even more, estimating that only 0.5% Earth’s water is usable and available freshwater. This relatively miniscule supply must support billions of people, agriculture, wildlife, and ecosystems.

Hair-thin fungal filaments called mycorrhiza extend from tree roots into the soil and connect to the roots of other trees, forming a common mycelial network (CMN). When fungal cells interact with root cells, they exchange carbon for nutrients the fungi have obtained by growing through the soil and coating every particle. All of this is happening just a few inches beneath the forest floor.

These networks allow trees to exchange carbon, water, nitrogen, and other minerals. When a disturbance such as wind, fire, or logging creates gaps in the canopy, the trees that remain can send resources through the network to help new seedlings establish. In Douglas‑fir and other species, researchers have observed that seedlings connected to older trees via mycorrhizal networks regenerate faster and more evenly.

Forests move their own seeds — animals carry them across the landscape in various ways and drop them where new trees can take root. Jays scatter-hoard acorns by the thousand — a single jay can bury 5,000 or more in one autumn — tucking each one into soil at the ideal planting depth and forgetting enough of them to grow a forest. Buried caches establish seedlings at roughly twice the rate of acorns left on the surface, and because birds carry seed far and fast, they make it possible for oak forests to migrate ahead of a changing climate. 

Another prolific collaborator is the orangutan, who act as “gardeners of the forest” by dispersing seeds as they travel. Researchers from our planting partner the Borneo Nature Foundation, University of New South Wales, and Kings Park Science in Western Australia studied wild orangutans in Sebangau Forest in Borneo and captive orangutans at two zoos in Australia. “We found seeds in 73% of orangutan faeces, with 828 seeds found in one poo! Seeds varied in size from a few millimetres to two and a half centimetres” explained Dr Esther Tarzisz, lead author of two research papers that shared the study’s findings. The study also observed that seeds dispersed by orangutans often show greater germination success and speed.

That's right! In Oregon's Blue Mountains, you'll find a single honey fungus that occupies an astounding 2,384 acres of soil. That's equivalent to about 1,800 American football fields — or, nearly four square miles.

Discovered in 1998, this mass of Armillaria ostoyae could be anywhere from 2,400-8,650 years old. That means it could potentially be older than Methuselah, a 4,800-5,000 year old Great Basin bristlecone pine that is widely considered the oldest tree in the world. 

Much of the organism is hidden underground as mycelium, a network of fine fungal threads. The mushrooms visible above ground are only its reproductive structures.

Earth's land was colonized by plants during the Ordovician period, around 450 million years ago. Likely evolved from microscopic algae, early land plants played a critical role in stabilizing soils and increasing the oxygen in the atmosphere through the process of photosynthesis. As plants spread, they continued to stabilize landscapes, influence water cycles, and create habitats for other organisms.

During the Silurnian and Devonian periods, complex ecosystems such as forests and diverse animal life lead to significant environmental changes. Today, forests play a major role in Earth’s carbon and water cycles. They store carbon in their biomass and soils, influence local temperature and rainfall, protect watersheds, and provide habitat for a vast range of species.

Despite being separated by the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara Desert and the Amazon Rainforest share a surprising connection: wind. 

Each year, airborne dust travels 1,600 miles westward from Africa across the Atlantic Ocean toward South America.

Some of that dust contains phosphorus, an essential nutrient for plant growth. NASA satellite observations estimated that about 27.7 million tons of Saharan dust fall over the Amazon Basin each year. The dust delivers about 22,000 metric tons of phosphorus annually.

This is a powerful example of Earth’s interconnected systems: nutrients from a former lakebed in Africa can help replenish soils in one of the world’s largest tropical forest regions.

With universal ratification by every country on Earth, the Montreal Protocol has phased out nearly 99% of controlled ozone-depleting substances, helping protect the ozone layer from further planet-warming gas damage.

New data is expected this year, but as of the last assessment in 2022, if current policies remain in place, the ozone layer is expected to recover to 1980 values around:

• 2040 for most of the world,
• 2045 over the Arctic, and
• 2066 over the Antarctic. 

The ozone layer’s recovery is a powerful example of just how interconnected our planet is — and of what humanity can achieve when countries work together. By acting on scientific evidence and upholding international agreements, nations around the world have made measurable progress toward protecting a shared global resource.

“Ozone action sets a precedent for climate action. Our success in phasing out ozone-eating chemicals shows us what can and must be done – as a matter of urgency – to transition away from fossil fuels, reduce greenhouse gases and so limit temperature increase,” said World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Prof. Petteri Taalas in a 2023 news release.

In the longleaf pine forests of the Southeast United States, the gopher tortoise digs burrows up to 40 feet long, and more than 350 other species move in — indigo snakes, burrowing owls, gopher frogs, all sheltering underground when fire sweeps across the surface. Take the tortoise out of the equation and the whole tenancy loses its housing, which is why it anchors one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in North America.

Woodpeckers chisel fresh nest cavities every year, and once they move on, the holes become homes for animals that can't dig their own — owls, bats, pine martens, chickadees, flying squirrels. A single red-cockaded woodpecker's cavities can shelter dozens of other species over their lifetime.