Scientists often talk about the importance of flora and fauna to the health of our planet, but Dr. Toby Kearse, an evolutionary biologist and founder of the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, wants us to consider another force: fungi. His work charting the planet’s vital underground systems has earned him numerous awards, including a MacArthur Fellowship and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement (sometimes called the ‘Green’ Nobel). She tells Ian Sample about her work mapping fungal networks on the remote Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, and what the research reveals about the often invisible role of fungi.
