Toby Kiers has won the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement for pioneering work that exposes vast mycorrhizal fungal networks beneath soils worldwide. Her research—including a global Underground Atlas, a landmark 2011 Science paper, and two recent Nature studies—shows fungi sequester an estimated 13.12 billion tonnes of CO2 annually and operate like a biological marketplace. Kiers founded SPUN to map and protect fungal biodiversity, and SPUN is launching an "Underground Advocates" legal training program alongside the $250,000 prize.
‘Environment Nobel’ for Soil: Toby Kiers Reveals Hidden Fungal Networks That Sequester 13.12 Billion Tonnes of CO2
American evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers has been awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement -- sometimes called the "Nobel for the environment" -- for her work that shines a light on the hidden undergound world of fungal webs (Seth Carnill)(Seth Carnill/Society for the Protection of Underground Networks/AFP)
Beneath forests, grasslands and farms worldwide, vast mycorrhizal fungal networks form subterranean trading systems with plant roots that help regulate the climate by storing enormous amounts of carbon. For illuminating this hidden world, evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers has been awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement — often described as the 'Nobel for the environment'.
Making the Invisible Visible
Kiers and her collaborators created a global "Underground Atlas" that maps the distribution of mycorrhizal fungi and published two major papers in Nature that substantially advanced how scientists observe and understand these networks. One paper introduced a robotic imaging system that lets researchers watch fungal hyphae grow, branch and redirect nutrients in real time; the other produced the first broad-scale map of where fungal species occur around the globe.
A Biological Marketplace
In a landmark 2011 Science paper, Kiers showed that mycorrhizal fungi behave like shrewd traders in a biological marketplace. With filaments finer than human hair, fungi transport phosphorus and nitrogen to plants in exchange for sugars and fats derived from plant carbon. Laboratory experiments demonstrated fungi actively move nutrients from areas of abundance to scarcity and can alter flows to secure more carbon in return — a dynamic resembling supply, demand and pricing.
“I just think about all the ways that soil is used in a negative way ... Whereas a bag of dirt contains a galaxy!” said Kiers, University Research Chair at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Climate Significance and Conservation Concerns
Plants allocate surplus carbon below ground, and mycorrhizal fungi are estimated to draw down roughly 13.12 billion tonnes of CO2 annually — roughly one-third of annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels. Yet the global survey found most hotspots of fungal diversity lie outside protected areas, highlighting a serious gap in conservation planning.
Advocacy and Legal Tools
To raise awareness and protect subterranean biodiversity, Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). Coinciding with the Tyler Prize and its $250,000 award, SPUN is launching an "Underground Advocates" program to train scientists in legal and policy tools to defend fungal biodiversity and the carbon stores it helps maintain.
Why It Matters
Beyond carbon storage, fungi were essential to the evolution of land plants: algal ancestors formed partnerships with fungi that helped plants colonize terrestrial environments. Kiers’ work reframes how we view ecosystems, urging society to think of life from the surface down and to include the underground in conservation priorities.
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