If you are in need of soil microbial data relating to PLFAs or enzyme activities, check out our latest paper that provides an open-access global database of data form around the world. Thanks very much to the long list of collaborators who made this happen! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Can plant biodiversity predict underground fungal diversity?

New study published in Nature Communications finds only 8.8% of arbuscular mycorrhizal and 1.5% of ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity hotspots overlap with plant hotspots.

Link to paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧵

Thanks very much to co-authors @thecrobe.bsky.social @claraqin.bsky.social @adricorrales.bsky.social @bethanfmanley.bsky.social @tobykiers.bsky.social Tom Crowther and Michael Van Nuland

Our paper mapping plant and mycorrhizal fungal diversity correlations is out! Relationships are weak at the global level, but both positive and negative at smaller scales. Plants are not always proxies for fungi — fungi need their own conservation focus @spun.earth @ethz.ch
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

📣 GSBI's latest blog has just been published 🎉

In this blog, Dr. Laura Van Galen discusses the mystery of dark taxa in ectomycorrhizal fungi 🍄

Read it here 👇

www.globalsoilbiodiversity.org/blog-beneath...

It was great to be part of this paper mapping mycorrhizal fungal diversity around the world!

Great to see this and thanks for highlighting our study, led by @laura-vangalen.bsky.social in this article.

Tom Parker @hutton.ac.uk and I wrote for @theconversation.com discussing why it’s important to find out what’s out there in terms of mycorrhizal fungi following a the revent review in @currentbiology.bsky.social by the @spun.earth team. Read it here: theconversation.com/most-plant-f...

Find out why SPUN scientists @camilletruong.bsky.social and @laura-vangalen.bsky.social are desperate to know more about dark taxa in this new article by Daniel Graham, featured on BBC Magazine's Discover Wildlife: www.discoverwildlife.com/environment/...

The "dark" #biodiversity of ectomycorrhizal #fungi

Epic review in our 🍄 special issue by Laura van Galen @laura-vangalen.bsky.social and many many others!

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Have you ever heard of the term “dark taxa”?

Published in @currentbiology.bsky.social‬, a new study reveals an astonishing 83% of ectomycorrhizal #fungi are classified as dark taxa, existing only through their DNA sequences and eluding formal classification. 🧵

So excited to see this published! Congratulations @laura-vangalen.bsky.social and all coauthors! Link to paper here www.cell.com/current-biol...

Our paper shows that most ectomycorrhizal fungal species (83% of OTUs) are "dark taxa": species we detect in DNA, but can't match to known species names. We map global "darkspots" - the parts of the world most in need of more research. @spun.earth @ethz.ch www.cell.com/current-biol...

I'm excited that this is out!

Microbes are critical to life on Earth. But they’re unsung heroes, unrecognized by international policies.

A new paper by SPUN collaborator @laura-vangalen.bsky.social underlines how indispensable microbe-based technologies are to achieve ALL of the #SDGs.
https://buff.ly/3WwlZBU