In the Eastern Qilian Mountains, researchers studied different types of shrub grasslands to understand the diversity of fungi in their soil. They used traditional culturing methods, genetic sequencing analysis, and efficient techniques to explore the differences in soil fungi. They found a total of 35 different fungi species from the soil samples. The diversity of fungi varied among the shrublands, indicating distinct fungal communities in each type of shrub grassland. The study showed that these three alpine shrub grasslands have unique soil fungi, suggesting the need for further research to uncover their potential benefits.