People talk a lot about smokestacks, cars, and melting ice when they talk about global warming, but a lot of the story happens below the surface. The 2026 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, which is often called the “Nobel of the Environment,” went to a scientist who built her career on showing the unseen half of the planet.
The Nobel Prize for the Environment Goes to the Underground
The Tyler Prize is given out at the University of Southern California to researchers who change how people think about and care for the Earth. Michael Mann, a climate scientist, and Jane Goodall, a primatologist, are two past winners who are well-known for their work on climate change and protecting the environment.
The 2026 winner is American biologist Toby Kiers, who studies how plants and fungi have changed over time. She has been studying how plants and fungi work together in the soil for almost 30 years. This was once thought to be a very narrow topic. She uses lab experiments, trips around the world, and new technology to show how these underground networks change the climate and the variety of life on Earth.
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Kiers’ research shows that fungal networks are more than just background biology; they help control carbon on a global scale.
In addition to her scientific work, Kiers is now a public advocate for what she calls “the invisible biodiversity beneath our feet.” She says that any serious plan for the climate must include soils and fungi.
Fungal paths beneath our feet
In forests, grasslands, and farm fields, fine fungal filaments wrap around the roots of plants. These are mycorrhizal fungi that help almost 90% of land plants grow. In exchange for water and nutrients, the fungi give plants sugars that they make through photosynthesis.
These links don’t just connect one tree or plant. They often make big networks that link plants of different kinds. These fungal “highways” let water, nitrogen, phosphorus, and other chemicals move through them.
This huge underground mesh is sometimes called the “wood wide web” by scientists. It is a living structure that quietly holds up entire ecosystems.
By looking at how resources move through these networks, Kiers and his team have shown that fungi do not move goods around at random. They act more like people in the market, sending nutrients to places where they can get the most plant sugars in return. This work brought ideas from economics into ecology, which changed how scientists think about how animals work together in nature.
A hidden climate controller
Mycorrhizal fungi not only feed plants, but they also handle a lot of carbon. Plants take in carbon from the air and send some of it to their roots. The roots then send it to fungi that live with them. New estimates say that these fungal networks hold on to about 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide in soils around the world every year.
Some of that carbon gets stuck in stable soil structures that can last for hundreds or even thousands of years. These networks can be damaged by heavy plowing, cutting down trees, or soil degradation, which can also release carbon that was stored in the ground back into the air.
Kiers’ work has helped make this risk clear. By mapping fungal networks and measuring how much carbon they move and store, her team gives land managers and policymakers information they can use to make plans to deal with climate change.
From a small group to a global policy debate
Mycorrhizal fungi have gotten a lot less attention in climate debates than forests, oceans, or ice sheets. Kiers has worked to change that by co-founding projects to map the diversity of fungi around the world and pushing for the protection of fungi in international meetings.
She often uses satellite data, soil samples, and genetic sequencing all at once in her research. This method lets teams make maps of underground fungal communities, just like botanists make maps of coral reefs or forests.
Her group looks at how logging changes the types of fungi and the amount of carbon stored in tropical forests.
They try out ways of farming that protect or restore fungal networks in places where farming is common.
They look at fungi that help plants survive in dry areas, which gives them ideas for how to deal with climate change.
Because fungi are on climate maps, Kiers says they should also be included in climate budgets and land-use plans.
Why the Tyler Prize jury paid attention
The Tyler Prize jury usually gives awards to research that is both useful in the real world and deep in science. Kiers is a good example of this. She has written important academic papers on how cooperation changes between species, and she has also used her research to add to discussions about agriculture, reforestation, and the loss of biodiversity.
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Some of the most important questions in climate policy are what her research looks at. For example, how much carbon can land systems hold? What types of farming can cut down on emissions without hurting crops? How do we protect biodiversity that people don’t see very often but depend on every day?
Part of Kiers’ workClimate importance
The transfer of carbon via fungal networksEnhances assessments of terrestrial carbon sinks.
How farming changes the fungi in the groundLeads to farming that doesn’t hurt the air and is good for the soil.
Mapping the different types of mycorrhizae around the world helps find areas that need to be protected or restored.
From the lab to the field: what happens in the real world
Kiers’ work affects both policies about farming and policies about conservation. Using a lot of fertilizer and deep tilling are two examples of modern farming methods that break up fungal networks. That can make crops depend more on chemicals and make it harder for soil to keep carbon and water.
Her results support a group of farming methods that are often called “regenerative agriculture.” These include less use of synthetic fertilizers, more cover crops, more varied crop rotations, and less tillage. These kinds of things help fungal communities start and keep up the exchanges that make soil fertile.
Some farmers are now working with soil ecologists to keep an eye on the health of fungi and the amount of crops they grow. Tests have shown that fields with more mycorrhizal networks can sometimes keep growing with less fertilizer. This cuts costs and pollution at the same time.
Fungal networks that are healthy can be a kind of “green infrastructure” that helps with both climate goals and making sure there is enough food.
What might happen if the alliance underground breaks up?
People are getting more and more worried that climate policy will suffer if we don’t pay attention to underground ecosystems. For example, planting a lot of trees might not work if the new forests don’t have the right fungi partners or if they are planted on soils that have been damaged and networks are broken.
When land is changed too much, soils that used to hold carbon can become sources. Fungi and other soil life die when you deep plow, drain, or use pesticides over and over. This speeds up the breakdown of organic matter and lets more carbon escape into the air.
Kiers’ research helps us figure out how many of these tipping points there are. It says that protecting existing soil networks may be just as important for the climate as planting new trees or building renewable energy infrastructure.
Important words and situations that will help you understand the science
Climate models and policy papers now use a lot of technical terms that are related to this work. There are a few that are worth looking into:
Mycorrhiza is a relationship between a fungus and plant roots that helps both of them. The fungus gives the plant water and nutrients, and the plant gives the fungus sugars.
Soil carbon sink: The ability of soil to keep carbon for a long time instead of letting it go as carbon dioxide.
Regenerative agriculture is a way of farming that tries to make the soil healthier, increase biodiversity, and store more carbon while still growing food.
Climate modellers are starting to make models that include changes in mycorrhizal networks. If 10 to 20 percent of current farmland used methods that help fungal communities, modeled results show that soils will store more carbon over the next few decades.
On the other hand, scenarios with more deforestation and more intensive farming show that fungal diversity is going down and carbon sinks are getting weaker. Even if we quickly cut back on fossil fuels, those paths make it harder to keep global warming below 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius.
What this means for the decisions we make every day
Fungal ecology may seem like a distant subject, but it has to do with climate policies, forests, and food that affect everyone. Support for farming that is good for the soil, pressure to stop cutting down trees, and attention to how land is used in the area all have an effect on underground ecosystems.
Kiers’ win of the Tyler Prize shows that more and more people are talking about climate change and biodiversity. It’s not just about the emissions from cars and power plants anymore. It’s also about the quiet, cellular talks that are going on between fungi and roots beneath our feet.
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