How do fungi affect the carbon cycle?

Both Plants and fungi affect the carbon cycle though they do it in different ways- both of them interfere with it while they are attempting to get food/energy to survive on. Each have adapted so they can live in an environment where they can source enough food to survive. They get these things from different sources so grow in very different conditions in order to survive. Plants live in places with lots of sunlight as well as a place where they can source water whereas fungi can live almost anywhere so long as it has other small organisms nearby.
Plants make their own food, using water and carbon dioxide to make glucose (energy) and oxygen (a waste product) in a process called photosynthesis. Though very little of it, it also lets out some carbon dioxide. This is the reason that it has adapted to live in places with lots of sunlight- so it can absorbed enough of it to make energy. It also grows in ground that has a water source. Different varieties of plants have adapted to live with different amounts of water. For example, a daisy that can be commonly found in Europe needs an almost constant water intake to survive while cacti, which grow in hotter, dryer places such as desserts don’t need a constant intake but have a way of storing it so it can gradually use it over the period of time until it finds more.
Although plants need these sources around, they also need to be able to take them into their system. They have adapted certain characteristics about themselves to be able to do this. First of all, to get sunlight, they have leaves which grow towards the sun. These leaves give the plant more surface area which makes it able to absorb more sunlight.
The leaves and all of the green parts of the plant’s top layer are made of a specially adapted cell. These cells have a very thin cell wall so sunlight can penetrate it easily. After this, the sunlight reaches chloroplasts which are plastids containing chlorophyll. This is where photosynthesis actually takes place. These chloroplasts move up and down in the cell to avoid getting burned by very strong sunlight.
To source water plants grow roots into the ground. On these roots are root hair cells which give the plants a larger surface area to absorb more water. Once the water is collected by the roots it is transported via a series of xylem and phloem cells to the chloroplasts (where photosynthesis occurs).
On the other hand, fungi do not photosynthesis like plants. Most species of fungi are saprotrophic which means that to get their food they digest nutrients from parasites and decomposing matter outside their bodies. If the food is composed of simple molecules such as glucose or sucrose (soluble food) it can be immediately transported through their cell walls. However, most food that fungi might consume is composed of complex, organic compounds, for example cellulose, lignin, pectin, starch (foods which are insoluble). In order for this food to be used by fungi, it must be broken down into simpler molecules that can be transported through their cell walls. This is done by digestive enzymes.
Like plants, they have adapted in order to be able to do these things. First of all, their cell wall is very thin and made of a substance called chitin, the same material that makes up an insect's exoskeleton. This allows only the correct sized partials to enter it. They have also adapted to have enzymes that stay at their very surface.
The way in which the carbon cycle is affected by these plants happens at two different stages of the cycle. Plants absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere when they respire. Respiration is the way that they source carbon dioxide for photosynthesis- they do this by opening and closing stoma cells which let carbon dioxide in and oxygen out. As there are many more plants in the world than there are fungi, they play a much larger role in balancing the gases in our atmosphere. The Amazon rain forest absorbs around 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide a year while producing around 20% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. When a plant or any other organism dies the nutrients that they have obtained over their lifetime decays to form fossil fuels. This is another way that plants obtain fossil fuels when they are alive- along with other minerals they are taken through the roots of a plant with water.
The way in which fungi affects the carbon cycle is at the later stage when carbon has already been absorbed into an organism. Fungi do not chemically produce carbon but release the carbon that has already been obtained by other organisms into the ground when. They do this when they die and decompose. This process would happen naturally when the original organism decomposes. In some cases, fungi speeds up the decomposition process, releasing carbon into the ground faster than it would by decomposing naturally. It also releases carbon in a smaller form as it breaks down all that goes inside it before it dies.
In conclusion, plants do directly affect the carbon cycle by producing it and realising it into the ground and atmosphere. Fungi also affect the carbon cycle however they do not change carbon as they use it, just help it decay to form fossil fuels.