The Social Life of Forests
nytimes.com
The Social Life of Forests
1–10 of 22 posts
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#2There also was a free audiobook version of this article on The Daily recently, that I enjoyed hearing:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/06/podcasts/the-daily/tree-c...
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#3If you prefer video, this Ted Talk from Suzanne Simard does a good job of summarizing her team’s discoveries about how trees communicate.
https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_e...
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#4If you prefer video, this Ted Talk from Suzanne Simard does a good job of summarizing her team’s discoveries about how trees communicate. https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_e...
I recently watched the film Fantastic Fungi and I think she makes an appearance in it. I was really fascinated when they mention how trees can use mycelium to transfer nutrients to other trees, but wished they could go more in depth on how that works. This Ted talk is a great supplement to the research
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#5If you prefer video, this Ted Talk from Suzanne Simard does a good job of summarizing her team’s discoveries about how trees communicate. https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_e...
This is also a good book on the topic:
https://www.npr.org/books/titles/488266595/the-hidden-life-o...
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#6If you prefer video, this Ted Talk from Suzanne Simard does a good job of summarizing her team’s discoveries about how trees communicate. https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_e...
In Sheldrake's book, Engtangled Life, if I remember correctly, he suggests that it may be better not to think of it as trees communicating, but rather mycorrhizal networks passing on the information to other trees because it's in their interest to do so (the article posted alludes to this). It's similar to how mycorrhizal networks will transfer chemicals and nutrients between trees, because it's to their benefit to keep as many trees alive as possible.
One thing I do remember that was quite fascinating, is that the exchange of nutrients and chemicals is almost like a trading network: mycorrhizal fungi will send stuff it produces that trees need to places where the reward (payment) will be highest. An example would be, if the mycorrhizal fungi has phosphorous to "trade" for carbon, if there is a tree that will "pay" less (perhaps because it doesn't need the phosphorous, or it needs carbon for itself), the mycorrhizal fungi would rather divert that phosphorus to another tree that would give a greater return of carbon.
There's a description of this "trading network" here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6584331/
Apologies if I described it wrong, I read the book a while ago.
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#7I had read that forests form mega-organisms, but hearing details about the actual exchange of resources facilitated by fungal networks was really fascinating.
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#8If you prefer video, this Ted Talk from Suzanne Simard does a good job of summarizing her team’s discoveries about how trees communicate. https://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_e...
I find her ted talks way too anthropomorphic to be honest.
Now that nature is a complex web of mutually beneficial interactions, why not (and I'd root for this actually).
If she could remove the emotional side of things it would help I believe.
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#9Mushroom once grew to 8m tall, 440million years ago. I wish someone would try to bring them back, at least one.
Radiation-fed mushrooms were found inside Chernobyl.
Mushrooms make up the bulk of a forest, you just can't see them.
Re: The Social Life of Forests
#10Mushroom once grew to 8m tall, 440million years ago. I wish someone would try to bring them back, at least one. Radiation-fed mushrooms were found inside Chernobyl. Mushrooms make up the bulk of a forest, you just can't see them.