The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks is a global scientific organisation established to map mycorrhizal fungi communities based on metagenomic analysis of soil DNA samples. These symbiotic fungi are extremely important for maintaining the health of plants in terrestrial ecosystems, interacting with them in deep nutritional, anti-stress and even phytosanitary interactions. The ambitious goal of the international action SPUN-EXPEDITION is to initiate the conservation of global soil ecosystems, which are largely unaddressed in biodiversity and climate change programmes.
One of the 32 SPUN teams was a research group from AMU: Professor Władysław Polcyn (PI) and bioinformatics students Maksymilian Chmielewski and Mikołaj Charchuta, with the help of a local guide – Piotr Klub, a forester and activist with the Natural Heritage Foundation. They invited Professor Joanna Hoffmann-Dietrich together with Jadwiga Subczyńska and Maria Subczyńska from the University of the Arts in Poznań to collaborate. The research team led expeditions to the south-eastern part of the buffer zone of the Bieszczady National Park. The aim was to study the fungal networks formed by symbiotrophic, pathogenic and saprophytic species living in the root zone of monumental beech and fir trees, which can be considered as local biodiversity hotspots. The results of this and other collaborations between the universities can be found on the Artsience-node webpage.
