Toby Kiers Wins Tyler Prize beneath forests, grasslands, and farmlands across the world lies a vast underground fungal system that quietly supports life on Earth. These hidden networks, known as mycorrhizal fungi, connect with plant roots and play a major role in regulating the planet’s climate. For decades, they were seen as simple helpers to plants. Today, they are recognised as one of the most important natural systems sustaining ecosystems, food security, and climate balance.

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

This growing understanding is largely due to the groundbreaking work of American evolutionary biologist Toby Kiers, who has now been awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Often described as the highest honour in environmental science, the award celebrates individuals whose work has had a global impact on environmental knowledge and protection.

Understanding the Tyler Prize and Its Significance

The Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement is sometimes called the “Nobel Prize for the environment.” It honours scientists and leaders whose research has helped humanity better understand and protect the natural world. Along with global recognition, the prize includes a monetary award of $250,000, supporting further research and advocacy.

Toby Kiers received this honour for reshaping how scientists and policymakers view life beneath the soil. Her work has brought underground ecosystems into mainstream environmental thinking, showing that climate solutions do not only lie in forests and oceans, but also in the soil below our feet.

Who Is Toby Kiers

Toby Kiers is currently a University Research Chair at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is known for combining ecology, evolution, technology, and global mapping to study soil systems. Her research focuses on mycorrhizal fungi, microscopic organisms that form partnerships with nearly all land plants.

Through years of research, Kiers has helped reveal that these fungi are not passive organisms. Instead, they are active decision-makers that influence plant health, soil fertility, and carbon storage on a massive scale.

The Hidden Carbon Storehouse Underground

One of the most important discoveries linked to Kiers’ work is the role of mycorrhizal fungi in carbon storage. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air through photosynthesis. While some of this carbon is used for growth, a large portion is sent underground to fungal partners.

Research shows that over 13 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are stored every year through these underground fungal networks. This amount is roughly equal to one-third of global fossil fuel emissions, making mycorrhizal fungi one of Earth’s largest natural carbon sinks.

This process helps slow climate change by keeping carbon locked in the soil instead of returning to the atmosphere.

Mapping the Underground World

To better understand where these fungi exist and how they function globally, Toby Kiers co-developed a detailed Underground Atlas. This global mapping effort tracks the distribution of mycorrhizal fungi across continents and ecosystems.

The atlas revealed something surprising: many areas rich in underground fungal biodiversity lie outside protected regions. This means that important climate-supporting ecosystems remain vulnerable to land-use change, agriculture expansion, and development.

By making underground life visible through data and maps, Kiers’ work gives conservationists a powerful new tool to plan protection efforts more effectively.

Fungi as Smart Traders in Nature

One of Toby Kiers’ most influential contributions came in a 2011 paper published in the journal Science. In this research, she introduced the idea of a “biological marketplace.”

Her experiments showed that mycorrhizal fungi behave like smart traders. They exchange nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen with plants in return for carbon-based sugars and fats. When multiple plants are connected, fungi shift nutrients toward plants that provide more carbon, similar to supply-and-demand systems in human markets.

This discovery changed how scientists understand cooperation in nature. It showed that mutual relationships are shaped by choice, competition, and balance, not just simple cooperation.

Technology and New Ways of Seeing Fungi Behind How Toby Kiers Wins Tyler Prize for Mycorrhizal Research

More recently, Kiers and her team have used advanced technology to study fungal behaviour. In papers published in Nature, they introduced robotic imaging systems that allow scientists to observe fungal growth in real time.

These tools help track how fungi expand, connect, and respond to environmental changes. Such insights are essential for predicting how soil ecosystems may respond to climate stress, land degradation, and changing farming practices.

Protecting Underground Life as Toby Kiers Wins Tyler Prize for Mycorrhizal Research

Concerned by the lack of legal protection for fungi, Toby Kiers co-founded the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN). The organisation works to raise awareness about the importance of underground ecosystems and to push for their inclusion in conservation laws.

SPUN highlights that fungi are often ignored in environmental policies, despite their foundational role in supporting forests, crops, and biodiversity. The organisation argues that protecting plants and animals without protecting fungi leaves ecosystems incomplete and fragile.

Why This Work Matters for the Planet: Toby Kiers Wins Tyler Prize for Mycorrhizal Research

The research recognised by the Tyler Prize shows that life on land evolved through ancient partnerships between plants and fungi. Without these relationships, forests, grasslands, and agriculture as we know them would not exist.

By bringing attention to underground systems, Toby Kiers has changed the way science views nature’s balance. Her work reminds the world that solutions to climate change and environmental loss are not always visible. Sometimes, they are quietly working below the surface, holding the planet together through invisible threads of life.