The Wood-Wide Web: How Trees Talk

Transcripción

A vast network of fungi, the 'Wood-Wide Web', links nearly every tree, creating a subterranean information highway<sup class='text_citation' source_id='15' start_phrase='fungal threads link' end_phrase='different species'></sup><sup class='text_citation' source_id='2' start_phrase='These mycorrhizal networks' end_phrase='an information highway'></sup>.

Through these fungal threads, trees share vital resources like carbon and water, and even send chemical warnings about insect attacks<sup class='text_citation' source_id='1' start_phrase='send chemical warning' end_phrase='against the insect'></sup><sup class='text_citation' source_id='5' start_phrase='Besides sharing nutrients' end_phrase='when it comes'></sup>.

In Douglas-fir forests, large, older 'mother trees' act as central hubs, connecting to hundreds of others<sup class='text_citation' source_id='17' start_phrase='large, older &apos;mother' end_phrase='100 feet away'></sup><sup class='text_citation' source_id='5' start_phrase='The oldest trees' end_phrase='running through them'></sup>.

These hubs nurture the next generation, sending life-sustaining nutrients to seedlings struggling in the shade, ensuring the forest's future<sup class='text_citation' source_id='4' start_phrase='Seeds from the' end_phrase='chances of survival'></sup><sup class='text_citation' source_id='17' start_phrase='Mother trees allocate' end_phrase='to unrelated trees'></sup>.