Hey, it's Flora Lichtenen and you are listening to Science Friday.

Today on the podcast, the unsung hero of the underground.

I think we sometimes give for granted that soils are just going to continue to exist

and to give us all their functionality or the great services.

When you think about the planet's top conservation priorities, you might think about biodiversity hotspots like the Amazon rainforest or the Galapagos Islands.

Or maybe you think of animals like rhinos or right whales.

But my next guests have something else in mind, a kind of underdog in the conservation world,

something that supports life on Earth, but that most of us probably don't think about,

an invisible ecosystem beneath our feet. Fungal networks.

They say these underground fungal filaments are critically important to us and our planet,

and we should pay them some respect. Why? Here to tell us are my guests, Dr. Adriana Corales,

forest ecologist in Bogota, Colombia, and Dr. Michael Van Newland, ecologist in Portland, Oregon.

Both are researchers with Spun, the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, which we're going to hear more about.

Welcome to you both to Science Friday.

Thank you for having us.

Yeah, thank you so much for this invitation.

Adriana, let's start with you.

Why should I care about the fungus underneath my feet?

Wow.

Well, microized fungi, or soil fungi in general, are mega-diverse.

Soils are mega-diverse ecosystems And microisal fungi specifically, we believe

they support life on earth because plants have, in many cases, an obligatory symbiosis with

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