The negative effects of agricultural production around the world can be attributed to neglected soil, reduced diversity, heavy fertilizer and pesticide use, and climate change, among many others. Every year, our food supply is threatened by climatization and federal policy, causing farmers to make costly systematic changes.

As we continue to evolve, the symbiotic relationship between natural and agricultural ecosystems is ever more crucial to our advancement as a civilization. Without an abundance of food and a thriving ecosystem of living organisms, our survival as a human race is at risk.

Adventure Scientists is a nonprofit organization that equips scientists with data collected from the outdoors that are crucial to addressing environmental and human health challenges. The organization gained popularity for attempting to improve the environment and the lives of those living in it by seeking out important scientific discoveries to combat climate change.

I am a proud member of the Adventure Scientists advisory board and a member of the famed Explorer’s Club. One of my first expeditions included a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro to prospect extremophiles in one of the mountain’s vast, arid craters. Our team took soil samples, GPS readings, and documented everything about the samples and locations within the crater. Temperatures in the crater would reach between 180–220 degrees Fahrenheit in an arid atmosphere flooded with ultraviolet light at an elevation of 19,340-feet. Within this harsh environment, we discovered 29 new species of microorganisms.

Anything growing and thriving in such conditions has the potential to improve multiple commercial and manufacturing processes. It was determined from identifying these new species that their protective makeup could also aid in industrial processes such as preventing house or car paint from fading in intense sunlight.

Adventure Scientists instantly appealed to me because of my own experiences. One of Adventure Scientists’ earliest projects helped microbiologist Rusty Rodriquez identify a new way to help crops survive, using a biological trick that allows plants to grow in some of the world’s most extreme environments.

Adventure Scientists’ founder, Gregg Treinish worked with Rodriguez to help uncover the symbiotic relationship between different plant systems that allowed these plants to adapt to the many stress factors associated with climate change. Together they worked with a dedicated group of volunteer scientists to uncover the world’s most extreme microorganisms and identify how they survived in the harshest environments.

The project began with brothers Willie and Damien Benegas collecting a sample of the world’s highest known plant life from atop Mount Everest at a staggering elevation of 22,300 feet. The brothers sent the samples to Rodriguez to dissect the plant DNA; these findings illuminated the relationship between fungus and plant growth that is the foundation of these extremophiles’ adapative capabilities.

The discovery has also helped identify a distinct relationship with other forms of agricultural growth. To date, it has increased crop yields on more than three million acres of farmland, including on more than 300 individual farms in India.

Treinish was thrilled with the results of these findings as they “could provide answers for how we will feed the world in the face of a changing climate,” the fungus, “shedding light on how to make crops throughout the world adapt to more extreme droughts, floods, and especially frost.”

Our global environment is at risk of suffering major agricultural shortfalls. It is projects such as these that will help ensure we are doing our best at, not just surviving, but also thriving as a society. By finding organisms that are already growing and thriving, we can ensure that the processes and resources used to grow our plants and feed our animals are the kindest to life on our planet, providing a better way of life for all living beings now and in the future.