I don't really know what it means when the 1-2 mushrooms per year sprout on the front lawn of my Bethpage, Long Island home, but, based on a collaborative study between the University of Texas, Boston University, and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, the fungi stand for good in terms of limiting carbon emissions from the soil into the air (perhaps they're also good for the grass, but not for front lawn aesthetics), Time reported.

According to their research, however, only a certain type of fungi, mycorrhizal fungi, work symbiotically with plants and ultimately reduce carbon emissions. Based on the pictures, which look little like the white stalks on my grass, maybe my dad was right in asking me to pluck them (some types of fungi can cause disease).

Furthermore, researchers discovered that a certain type of mycorrhizal fungi, ecto- and ericoid mycorrhizal (EEM) fungi, have a greater impact on plants by supplying them (or connecting roots) with significantly more nitrogen than the other type of plant-friendly fungi, or arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi. More nitrogen for the plants means less for soil microbes, which decompose dead plant matter and send carbon into the air. In fact, researchers found that soil with primarily EEM fungi had 70 percent more carbon than soil mostly containing AM fungi. More carbon in the ground means less in the air, and ultimately, less global warming type effects.

"This analysis clearly establishes that the different types of symbiotic fungi that colonize plant roots exert major control on the global carbon cycle, which has not been fully appreciated or demonstrated until now," said Colin Averill, the lead author of the paper.

Averill added that soil-based carbon emissions are but one aspect of carbon emissions and the titanic consequence we term "global warming."

"This study shows that trees and decomposers are really connected via these mycorrhizal fungi, and that you can't accurately predict future carbon cycling without thinking about how these two groups interact," said Averill. "We need to think of these systems holistically."