The power of fungi is a hot topic right now: from documentaries to books to a fictional post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a fungal outbreak. One international group is taking that heat unground to map and protect mycorrhizal fungi, a type of fungi that clings to roots and has a symbiotic relationship with plants. The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) is driving innovation in underground climate and biodiversity science.
Head of SPUN Underground Explorers program Dr. Adriana Corrales, and SPUN associates Dr. Nahuel Policelli and Dr. Nourou S. Yorou join us to talk about soil as a living organism, the benefit fungi can play in climate change, and the threats facing mycorrhizal fungi.
A soil core that a mycorrhizal fungi sample will be extracted from CREDIT: Justin Stewart (SPUN)Dr. Nahuel Policelli is a biologist based in Conicet, Argentina. He does research in microbial ecology, with a focus on mycorrhizal fungi and plants. Most of the projects in which he is involved study how belowground biota can facilitate or hinder plants invasion. ecology.
Dr. Nourou S. Yorou is a Professor of Agronomy at University of Parakou, in Benin. His research is focused on tropical African mycorrhizal fungi and their interactions with green plants.
Dr. Adriana Corrales is the head of SPUN Underground Explorers program. She is a forest ecologist with a joint position as an Assistant Professor at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá. Her research focuses on the ecology and taxonomy of tropical ectomycorrhizal associations, and shifts in fungal community composition caused by biotic and abiotic factors.
Featured photo: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with false color. Credit: Oyarte-Galvez (AMOLF). Used with permission from SPUN.
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