The Wood-Wide Web: How Trees Talk
Transcript
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 '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>.
Sources
- Mycorrhizal network - Wikipedia
- Inter-plant communication through mycorrhizal networks mediates complex adaptive behaviour in plant communities - PMC
- About Mother Trees in the Forest
- Underground Network Distributes Resources — Biological Strategy — AskNature
- Tree Communication Explained: How Underground Fungi Networks Connect Entire Forests
- The Social Life of Forests (Published 2020)
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