American Scientist Toby Kiers Wins Tyler Prize for Revealing Hidden Fungal Networks

Key facts

• American evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers has been awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for her work on mycorrhizal networks.
• Mycorrhizal fungi draw down 13.12 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, around a third of total emissions from fossil fuels.
• Kiers and her team launched a worldwide Underground Atlas last year to chart the global distribution of mycorrhizal fungi.
• In 2011, she published a landmark paper in Science showing that mycorrhizal fungi behave like traders in a 'biological marketplace,' moving phosphorus from abundance to scarcity to secure more carbon.
• Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) to map fungal biodiversity and advocate for its protection.
• SPUN is launching an 'Underground Advocates' programme to train scientists in legal tools to protect fungal biodiversity.