Society for the Protection of Underground Networks

Description

The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks, known as SPUN, is a science-based initiative that maps and protects mycorrhizal fungal networks.

It was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Dover, Delaware, in the United States. Its Executive Director is Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist. It works with mycologists and local collaborators worldwide to obtain soil samples from ecosystems that have rarely been studied.

SPUN extracts and sequences fungal DNA from soil samples to identify which fungi are present, then feeds the geo-located data into a machine-learning model that predicts fungal biodiversity and biomass across the planet. It has run sampling expeditions in countries including Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Kazakhstan, Ghana, Lesotho and Greece, prioritising underexplored ecosystems. In 2025 it released an interactive Underground Atlas mapping predicted mycorrhizal biodiversity worldwide, drawing on billions of fungal DNA sequences from 130 countries.

SPUN also runs Underground Explorers, a grant program funding mycorrhizal research by scientists in underexplored regions, with most grantees based in the Global South. It works with conservation partners such as The Nature Conservancy and the Fungi Foundation, and is supported by grants, donations and earned income from research partnerships.