To help save one of the world’s most endangered tropical ecosystems, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Professor Nicole Hynson was selected as a new Underground Explorer by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) for her research on the subterranean fungal network in Native Hawaiian dryland forests. One of her goals with the project is to provide guidance for ecosystem restoration practices, which currently have limited knowledge of fungal systems.
Nearly all plants on Earth form a close interaction with mycorrhizal fungi, a group of network-forming soil fungi. These fungal networks connect plants underground, can distribute vital nutrients across ecosystems and may even enable signaling between plants.
Supporting threatened ecosystems
As an Underground Explorer, Hynson will collaborate with researchers and local communities around the world to map mycorrhizal fungal networks in their home ecosystems.
“This project will provide guidelines to greenhouse and land managers on how to incorporate mycorrhizal fungi into restoration practices throughout Hawaiʻi,” said Hynson, who is based at the Pacific Biosciences Research Center in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and is the director of the Center for Microbiome Analysis through Island Knowledge and Investigation.
Hynson added, “Additionally, this project will assess how habitat degradation is affecting fungal communities and identify specific sites to prioritize for conservation based on the diversity and uniqueness of their mycorrhizal fungal communities—a strategy that despite interest from land management agencies has yet to be incorporated into Hawaiian conservation practices.”
With SPUN support, Hynson will assess fungal communities from the healthiest and most intact Native Hawaiian dryland forests and those that are in a degraded state. Hynson and her research team will also test whether inoculation with fungi cultivated from healthy dryland forests will significantly boost the health and survivorship of native host plants grown in captivity for the restoration of degraded areas.
“Hawaiʻi in general is considered the ‘endangered species capital of the world’ yet we have a minimal understanding of the mycorrhizal fungal communities of the islands, which likely face similar threats to their survival as endangered macroorganisms such as plants, birds and insects,” said Hynson. “Furthermore, the successful restoration of threatened ecosystems such as native Hawaiian dryland forests is likely contingent upon preserving and restoring mycorrhizal fungal communities that are adapted to, and have coevolved with native and endemic host plants.”
