PhytoStabilitas
Badania roślinności ochronnej dla skarp i gleb marginalnych – ostatnich klas bonitacyjnych PhytoStabilitas W warunkach postępujących zmian klimatycznych oraz coraz częstszych okresów suszy i gwałtownych opadów,...
“I remember clearing out plant root systems and seeing these mycorrhizal fungi actually penetrate into the plant cell and make these beautiful structures inside that look like mini trees, with a single trunk and many tubes as branches. "Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist, recalls her first forays into the world of mycorrhizal fungi while working in Panama in the late 1990s. "From there, I was hooked.“The conventional wisdom was that these were pathogenic fungi. It was so dramatic that they were actually penetrating the cell – they looked like a parasite,” she says.
Transformative
Scientific thinking has changed radically since then, with mycorrhizal fungi now recognised as an essential part of the Earth’s circulatory system, forming vast underground trading networks that exchange nutrients with plant roots across forest floors and agricultural lands.
This shift owes much to Kiers’ work at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where she is now research chair. This year began with her being awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, granted annually since 1974, previous recipients including Jane Goodall, Michael Mann and Gretchen Daily.
The award recognises her “transformative research” on the role of mycorrhizal fungi in underground carbon flows, biodiversity and climate resilience.
Kiers and her colleagues combine ecological science with cutting-edge technologies including high-resolution imaging, DNA sequencing and global mapping.
Their studies have revealed that fungi ‘trade’ nitrogen and phosphorus with plants, in return receiving around 13 billion tonnes of carbon every year – roughly equivalent to one-third of global fossil fuel emissions.
Advocates
However, Kiers’ research has also identified that 90 per cent of the world’s most diverse underground fungal systems are unprotected and largely absent from existing conservation frameworks.
In recognition of this, in 2021 Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), a global initiative working to map mycorrhizal biodiversity and advocate for their protection.
SPUN has produced a high-resolution digital Underground Atlas that predicts the global distribution of underground mycorrhizal fungi. The tool allows decision makers to identify where highly diverse and threatened fungal systems require protection.
SPUN has also partnered with New York University Law’s More-than-Human Life (MOTH) Program to equip scientists with legal and policy skills to help document and protect mycorrhizal fungi in biodiversity hotspots around the world.
Catherine Early is the chief reporter for The Ecologist and a freelance writer and editor specialising in the environment and sustainability.You can read more about Toby Kiers’ work at www.tobykiers.com and find out more about SPUN at www.spun.earth.
