CCI Conservation Seminar - Dr Bethan Manley

CCI Conservation Seminar - Dr Bethan Manley, Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN)

Mapping and protecting the world’s mycorrhizal fungi: a hidden link between biodiversity protection and carbon drawdown

SPUN is a scientific research organization that maps mycorrhizal fungal communities and advocates for their protection. Mycorrhizal networks regulate the Earth’s climate and ecosystems, yet they are not considered in current conservation and climate agendas. SPUN aims to change this by working with local communities and global researchers to create maps of the planet’s mycorrhizal fungal networks. We use large datasets and machine learning models to predict where there are hotspots of mycorrhizal diversity, and where they are most at risk. We aim to track the responses of mycorrhizal communities to climate change, and understand their contributions to biodiversity and ecosystem functions so that mycorrhizal fungi can be considered in restoration and conservation decisions.

Bethan began studying underground fungal networks during a PhD at the University of Cambridge examining Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and their genetic interactions with crop plants. She has a computational biology background through research into the genomics of mycorrhizal fungi and a role as a Senior Computer Biologist at the Sanger Institute, UK. Bethan is the Program Manager for Global Data Science at SPUN and coordinates how soil DNA samples are collected from across the world and sequenced and processed for inclusion within SPUN’s prediction maps.