Machine Learning (ML) is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) which uses past (collected) data to learn and identify patterns, often in order to make predictions. SPUN uses machine learning, incorporating DNA data on mycorrhizal fungi and layers of environmental data such as temperature, precipitation, and land use, to predict where mycorrhizal fungi are present in regions of the world where we don’t have soil DNA samples. This allows us to create worldwide maps of hotspots of mycorrhizal diversity, without having to sample every square meter of the Earth.