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Filamentous fungi control multiphase flow and fluid distribution in porous media

Nature Physics (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Filamentous fungi play crucial roles in global carbon and nutrient cycling, soil carbon sequestration, agricultural soil management, contaminant fate and transport, biofouling of engineered materials and human health. Although these processes typically involve multiple fluid phases in porous media, the mechanisms by which fungi regulate fluid flow remain poorly understood, limiting our ability to predict and harness fungus-mediated processes. The complexity and opacity of porous media further obscure our understanding of how fungi influence fluid flow and distribution. Here we explore the impact of filamentous fungi on multiphase flow and fluid redistribution using a dual-porosity microfluidic chip, featuring a flow channel embedded within tight porous media. Our pore-scale visualizations show that filamentous fungi can actively induce multiphase flow and mobilize trapped fluid phases in porous media through localized clogging and hyphal-induced pore invasion, enhancing the oil–water interfacial area and redistribution of fluid phases. This study reveals the mechanisms by which filamentous fungi modulate fluid flow and distribution, offering insights into harnessing fungal processes to enhance applications such as bioremediation and carbon sequestration.

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Fig. 1: Filamentous fungi enhance the removal of NAPL in a dual porosity system.
Fig. 2: NAPL displacement is driven by fungi-induced clogging of the main channel.
Fig. 3: Fungi-enhanced oil displacement is reproduced in randomized porous media system.
Fig. 4: Fungal growth in the channel reduced the channel permeability by two orders of magnitude.
Fig. 5: Penetration of hydrophilic hypha into oil-filled pores induces pore invasion.

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All data supporting the findings of this study are available within the Article and its Supplementary Information.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the MnDRIVE Advancing Industry, Conserving Our Environment, and a Seed Grant from the Biotechnology & Biomanufacturing Innovation Center at the University of Minnesota. S.H.L. acknowledges the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Nurturing Next-generation Researchers granted (award number 2018R1A6A3A03012913, S.H.L.) by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). M.M. acknowledges the support of the Research Council of Norway through project numbers 262644 (PoreLab SFF, M.M.), 324555 (FlowConn YFF, M.M.) and 309073 (COLOSSAL INTPART, M.M.). The preparation of PDMS microfluidic devices was conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the NSF through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) under award number ECCS-2025124.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Sang Hyun Lee, Shreya Srivastava, Cara Santelli & Peter K. Kang

  2. Department of Microbiology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Sang Hyun Lee

  3. PoreLab, the Njord Center, Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Marcel Moura

  4. BioTechnology Institute, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN, USA

    Cara Santelli

  5. Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Peter K. Kang

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Contributions

S.H.L. and P.K.K. designed research; S.H.L. performed experiments; S.H.L., S.S. and C.S. conducted microbiome analysis; S.H.L., M.M., S.S., C.S. and P.K.K. analysed data; and S.H.L. and P.K.K. wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Peter K. Kang.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Clogging of the main channel by filamentous fungi drives displacement of NAPL from model fractured aquifer system. The top panel shows the overview of the dual-porosity chip, the middle panel displays the invasion area colour-coded with time of change and the bottom panel shows the pressure drop and the volume of displaced oil from the chip. The experiment was performed as described in the Methods in the chip with regularly arranged pillars. The colour coding by the time of change was performed by assigning the time value to the pixels of newly invaded area of binarized images.

Supplementary Video 2

Hydrophilic hypha induced pore invasion at the single pore level. Images were recorded after the syringe pump was stopped once the fungal colony attached and started to grow in the chip with regularly arranged pillars. The pore throat or distance between pillars was 10 µm.

Supplementary Video 3

Fungi-induced NAPL displacement replicate experiment 1. A replicate experiment with regularly arranged pillar porous media chips were conducted. The results indicate the fungi-induced NAPL displacement is reproducible. The inset shows an enlarged video of the region colonized by fungi indicated by white rectangle. The oil phase was stained with fluorescent tracer.

Supplementary Video 4

Fungi-induced NAPL displacement replicate experiment 2. A replicate experiment with regularly arranged pillar porous media chips were conducted. The results indicate the fungi-induced NAPL displacement is reproducible.

Supplementary Video 5

Filamentous fungi-enhanced oil displacement is reproduced in randomized porous media. The top panel shows the overview of the dual-porosity chip, and the bottom panel shows a zoomed-in video of area colonized by a fungus, as well as the pressure drop and the volume of displaced oil from the chip. The experiment was performed as described in the Methods in the chip with randomly arranged pillars.

Supplementary Video 6

Invasion of NAPL-filled pores with large throats by penetration of multiple hydrophilic hyphae. Images were recorded after the syringe pump was stopped once the fungal colony attached and started to grow in the chip with regularly arranged pillars. The pore throat or distance between pillars was 100 µm.

Supplementary Video 7

Alteration of oil blob shape by poking of hydrophilic hyphal tip. Images were recorded after the syringe pump was stopped once the fungal colony attached and started to grow in the main flow channel. The oil blob shown with white outline sits on the glass surface in water saturated conduit. The change in the oil blob’s shape upon contact with hyphae indicates their hydrophilic nature.

Supplementary Video 8

Invasion of NAPL-filled pores with small throats by penetration of a single hydrophilic hypha. Images were recorded after the syringe pump was stopped once the fungal colony attached and started to grow in the chip with regularly arranged pillars. The pore throat or distance between pillars was 10 µm.

Supplementary Video 9

Split of oil island or bridging of water via hyphal penetration. Images were recorded after the syringe pump was stopped once the fungal colony attached and started to grow in the chip with regularly arranged pillars. The pore throat or distance between pillars was 10 µm.

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Lee, S.H., Moura, M., Srivastava, S. et al. Filamentous fungi control multiphase flow and fluid distribution in porous media. Nat. Phys. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-025-03020-6

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