noumeno

The forest that meets our eyes is not what it seems. Traditionally, it is thought that different types of trees are constantly fighting for sunlight--that through competition the strongest and tallest survive and thrive while the the small species of trees and shrubs get by on what they can get. Each tree being an independent organism. However, research conducted by Susanne Simard, Forestry Professor at the University of British Colombia in Canada, has shown that there exists a forest underneath the forest with trees being interdependent instead of independent as once thought.Research shows that trees' root systems are interconnected underneath the soil and are able to share information as well as nutrients. These interactions are made possible by a complete separate organism-- fungus that appears to the naked eye as small white strings. These "strings" of fungus are actually tubes and while small, there can be up to 7 miles in a pinch of soil. Dubbed the "wood wide web," the tubular fungus allow the trees to communicate and signal each other of insect attacks as well as provide each other with "loans" of different nutrients they may need. The fungus has something the trees need--minerals (magnesium, cooper, nitrogen, etc.) and the trees have something the fungus needs--sugar. They work together almost as if the forest is acting as an organism itself.The more diverse the forest, the healthier all of the species of trees are as a whole. Experiments have shown that a single tree can be connected to tens of other trees miles away. The larger older trees have the most connections. As the connections are mapped, they appear as airline connection hubs showing us that there is so much more to the forests than we had previously thought. That large oak tree that seems so majestic and strong is not an independent as might have thought in the past, but is part of a collaborative system hidden beneath our feet.