Ecology and evolution of plant-microbe symbiosis. Mapping fungal diversity and carbon. Postdoctoral Fellow at SPUN
Justin Stewart
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Jinsu Yi Elhance, Vasilis Kokkoris, Merlin Sheldrake, James Weedon, Thomas Shimizu, Stuart West, Toby Kiers
Corentin Bisot,Rachael Cargill , Michael Van Nuland, PhD, Heidi Hawkins, Loreto Oyarte Galvez, Malin Klein, Marije van Son, Victoria Terry, Louis Paré, Claudia Banchini, Franck Stefani, Felix Kahane, Kai-Kai Lin, Renato Braghiere, Katie Field, Nadia Soudzilovskaia,
This is only a first map (see uncertainty analyses in paper), with much more soil to sample, but hopefully it starts a bigger conversation about fungal infrastructure.
~1 billion times the distance from Earth to the Sun.
That is approx the total length of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal hyphae in topsoils. These microscopic fungal networks form one of Earth’s circulatory systems moving carbon and nutrients.
Out now in @science.org : lnkd.in/eKAsVN_Z
To create the first global maps of this hidden infrastructure, we assembled data from over 16,000 soil cores across the globe, developed machine-learning models, and calibrated our estimates using robotic imaging of more than 300,000 living arbuscular mycorrhizal hyphae.
Supported by @spun.earth and @amolf-nl.bsky.social see author list for full affiliations in paper.
Surprisingly, these fungal networks weigh relatively little. But like roads, infrastructure matters less because of its weight than because of what it connects. These are the roads of soils, moving carbon and nutrients between plants and the underground.
Video
Global topsoil contains ~110 quadrillion km of fungal threads, roughly one billion times the distance from the Earth to the Sun.
A new study in @science.org maps this hidden arbuscular mycorrhizal infrastructure for the first time.
Explore the Mycorrhizal Infrastructure Map: buff.ly/PISOj8k
Interested in #macroevolution, #macroecology, and mountain biodiversity?
I'm recruiting a #postdoc for an NSF-funded project at Yale, in collaboration with Martha Muñoz (Yale) and Maya Stokes (Florida State University).
I'll be at #Evol2026 and happy to chat!
Link below
📣Our special professor Ciska Veen organizes a discussion at European Congress for Conservation Biology (ECCB) (Leiden, 10 July '26; 3 pm) on 'Making soil biodiversity a priority for conservation in policy and practise'🦠🪱
Info: eccb26leiden.eu
Interested in pitching your idea? contact her!
