Ideas worth spreading

Como utilizar a parceria ancestral entre florestas e fungos

1,403,996 views | Colin Averill • TED Countdown London Session 2022

Se queremos entender melhor o meio ambiente e combater a mudança climática, precisamos olhar para o subsolo, onde diversas redes microscópicas de fungos se misturam às raízes das árvores para formar parcerias simbióticas, segundo o microbiologista Colin Averill. À medida que aprendemos mais sobre os fungos que são mais benéficos para a saúde florestal, podemos reintroduzi-los no solo, potencialmente melhorando o crescimento e a resiliência de árvores e plantas sequestradoras de carbono. Ouça mais sobre a ciência emergente que visa a dinamizar ecossistemas florestais, um punhado de solo de cada vez.

Se queremos entender melhor o meio ambiente e combater a mudança climática, precisamos olhar para o subsolo, onde diversas redes microscópicas de fungos se misturam às raízes das árvores para formar parcerias simbióticas, segundo o microbiologista Colin Averill. À medida que aprendemos mais sobre os fungos que são mais benéficos para a saúde florestal, podemos reintroduzi-los no solo, potencialmente melhorando o crescimento e a resiliência de árvores e plantas sequestradoras de carbono. Ouça mais sobre a ciência emergente que visa a dinamizar ecossistemas florestais, um punhado de solo de cada vez.

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Sign the Fauna, Flora, Funga statement to support the international effort to ensure fungi are included in local and global efforts to protect Earth's biodiversity.

About the speaker

Colin Averill

Forest microbiologist

See speaker profile

Colin Averill studies the forest microbiome and how soil biodiversity relates to tree growth rate and carbon capture.

Merlin Sheldrake | Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2021 | Book

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures

This is an extremely well researched and truly fascinating journey exploring fungal life below ground. Sheldrake's book is the perfect starting point for anyone looking to learn more about all the ways fungi regulate ecosystems and beyond.

Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry | The Takeaway, 2022 | Listen

"Understanding Underground Fungi May Help Mitigate Climate Change"

Dr. Colin Averill speaks on NPR's The Takeaway about forest microbiome restoration as an opportunity to mitigate climate change.

Adam Vaughan | New Scientist, 2021 | Article

"Soil microbe transplant could improve tree growth and remove more CO2"

Coverage by New Scientist on Colin Averill's team's forest microbiome restoration experiment run in collaboration with The Carbon Community in Wales, U.K.

Somini Sengupta and Tomás Munita | The New York Times, 2022 | Article

"Unearthing the Secret Superpowers of Fungus"

This is an article about SPUN's efforts to map the Earth's fungal microbiome. SPUN is the first conservation non-profit exclusively focused on protecting network-forming mycorrhizal fungi.

| Crowther Lab, 2022 | Article

"Defending Earth’s Terrestrial Microbiome"

This is summary of Colin Averill's team's recent work documenting the threats to global soil microbial biodiversity, and a roadmap for protecting Earth's terrestrial microbiome

Learn more

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Sign the Fauna, Flora, Funga statement to support the international effort to ensure fungi are included in local and global efforts to protect Earth's biodiversity.