The Conversations of the Wood Wide Web
By Sadie Doyle In my hometown of Newburyport, Massachusetts lies and the soil beneath your feet are thrumming with energy Maudslay State Park, a formerly private property turned and engaging in constant dialogue in a language that we are public park. It is 483 acres of field and forest, well-known only just beginning to investigate. for its towering white pines, and one that I have been exForestry has long been a science of harsh competition. ploring all my life. Located within a large estate historicalThe assumption was that the strongest trees live to grow ly owned by a wealthy family, there are naturally rumours up, and the weakest trees never make it to maturity, so that Maudslay is haunted. To scare each other, teenagers foresters concluded that each tree stood alone in its quest tell stories of deceased family members and staff wandering for survival. This idea was carried out in forestry practices the grounds. The stories are fun, but there really is a spirit that prevented forests from forming strong communities to of sorts, and more to Maudslay—indeed more to any forprotect one another. If trees are all fending for themselves est—than meets the eye. anyways, then foresters felt confident it made things easier The kingdom of fungi is an overlooked guiding hand in for remaining trees if you cut down a large slew of trees the foundations and functions of life. Popular image conat once, or harvested trees at the heart of an old-growth jures small fruiting bodies, often umbrella shaped, popping forest. It is not just forestry. Scientists have to balance two out of the ground, but mushrooms are only the aspect of truths: that organisms are interconnected and dependent the organism that are easiest to see, and most species do not on one another to maintain balance, and that organisms even have them. Fungi are mainly recognized as decomposhave to compete with each other for limited resources. In ers, but the depths of their roles are uniquely widespread forests, these two ideas fit together differently than tradiand entwined with organisms. They are found nearly everytional notions would dictate. where on earth, from marine sediment to human bodies, In 1984, English botanist David Read proved that it was and ecosystems would collapse, or never exist at all, withpossible for carbon, an essential element for plants to carry out them. They play parts in a great deal of different relaout photosynthesis, to pass between plants through fungal tionships, but I am specifically fascinated with fungi that connections, something that had been hypothesized since grow in a relationship with plants, called mycorrhizae. the 1960’s but never demonstrated. He used donor and A common way for fungi to spread is through expandreceiver plants, with or without mycorrhizal fungi present, ing their mycelium, a process by which they form branchand fed the donors radioactive carbon dioxide. For plants ing, exploratory networks of tiny threads called hyphae. that did not have a fungal network, he detected radioactiviWhen they spread and connect with other mycelium unty only in the donor plant, but with a fungal network, both derground, they form what are called common mycorrhizal plants showed radioactivity. These findings were significant networks and they connect nearly every tree in a forest by progress, but the experiment had been conducted in a labothreading themselves into root hairs. Some mycologists reratory, so his conclusion did not suggest that carbon transfer to mycorrhizal fungi as keystone organisms; others call fer between plants could happen naturally. them ecosystem engineers. These unseen architects work to Canadian forest ecologist Suzanne Simard built off of maintain the intricate dynamics of a forest. Read’s findings when she designed a manipulative experiIf you have ever gone walking in the woods and felt ment on a tree plantation in British Columbia, and what that your environment is awake, it is. The feeling that you she found changed the study of ecology forever. In an NPR are not among many different individuals, but inside of article “How do Trees Collaborate?” Simard discusses her something vast, is an accurate one. The trees around you work. She took pairs of trees and exposed one tree in each
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