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Visualising an invisible symbiosis

Despite the vast abundance and global importance of plant and microbial species, the large majority go unnoticed and unappreciated by humans, contributing to pressing issues including the neglect of study and research of these organisms, the lack of interest and support for their protection and cons...

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Autores principales: McGaley, Jennifer, Paszkowski, Uta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8651000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10180
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author McGaley, Jennifer
Paszkowski, Uta
author_facet McGaley, Jennifer
Paszkowski, Uta
author_sort McGaley, Jennifer
collection PubMed
description Despite the vast abundance and global importance of plant and microbial species, the large majority go unnoticed and unappreciated by humans, contributing to pressing issues including the neglect of study and research of these organisms, the lack of interest and support for their protection and conservation, low microbial and botanical literacy in society, and a growing disconnect between people and nature. The invisibility of many of these organisms is a key factor in their oversight by society, but also points to a solution: sharing the wealth of visual data produced during scientific research with a broader audience. Here, we discuss how the invisible can be visualised for a public audience, and the benefits it can bring. SUMMARY: Whether too small, slow or concealed, the majority of species on Earth go unseen by humans. One such rather unobservable group of organisms are the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, who form beneficial symbioses with plants. AM symbiosis is ubiquitous and vitally important globally in ecosystem functioning, but partly as a consequence of its invisibility, it receives disproportionally little attention and appreciation. Yet AM fungi, and other unseen organisms, need not remain overlooked: from decades of scientific research there exists a goldmine of visual data, which if shared effectively we believe can alleviate the issues of low awareness. Here, we use examples from our experience of public engagement with AM symbiosis as well as evidence from the literature to outline the diverse ways in which invisible organisms can be visualised for a broad audience. We highlight outcomes and knock‐on consequences of this visualisation, ranging from improved human mental health to environmental protection, making the case for researchers to share their images more widely for the benefit of plants (and fungi and other overlooked organisms), people and planet.
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spelling pubmed-86510002021-12-20 Visualising an invisible symbiosis McGaley, Jennifer Paszkowski, Uta Plants People Planet Opinions Despite the vast abundance and global importance of plant and microbial species, the large majority go unnoticed and unappreciated by humans, contributing to pressing issues including the neglect of study and research of these organisms, the lack of interest and support for their protection and conservation, low microbial and botanical literacy in society, and a growing disconnect between people and nature. The invisibility of many of these organisms is a key factor in their oversight by society, but also points to a solution: sharing the wealth of visual data produced during scientific research with a broader audience. Here, we discuss how the invisible can be visualised for a public audience, and the benefits it can bring. SUMMARY: Whether too small, slow or concealed, the majority of species on Earth go unseen by humans. One such rather unobservable group of organisms are the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, who form beneficial symbioses with plants. AM symbiosis is ubiquitous and vitally important globally in ecosystem functioning, but partly as a consequence of its invisibility, it receives disproportionally little attention and appreciation. Yet AM fungi, and other unseen organisms, need not remain overlooked: from decades of scientific research there exists a goldmine of visual data, which if shared effectively we believe can alleviate the issues of low awareness. Here, we use examples from our experience of public engagement with AM symbiosis as well as evidence from the literature to outline the diverse ways in which invisible organisms can be visualised for a broad audience. We highlight outcomes and knock‐on consequences of this visualisation, ranging from improved human mental health to environmental protection, making the case for researchers to share their images more widely for the benefit of plants (and fungi and other overlooked organisms), people and planet. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2021-02-11 2021-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8651000/ /pubmed/34938955 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10180 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Plants, People, Planet © New Phytologist Foundation https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Opinions
McGaley, Jennifer
Paszkowski, Uta
Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title_full Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title_fullStr Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title_full_unstemmed Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title_short Visualising an invisible symbiosis
title_sort visualising an invisible symbiosis
topic Opinions
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8651000/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34938955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10180
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