Dear MEL Topic Readers,
How trees secretly talk to each other
Does a tree speak?
Then do trees talk to each other? At night in a deep forest, you may feel they might be whispering quietly. In fact, they do communicate with each other but not by voice.
They do that through their funguses, or fungi, that grow around and inside their roots. They provide trees with nutrients and in return, they receive sugar from trees. Trees share resources by plugging into each other through funguses. This mechanism is called the Wood World Web. Through this fungi network, shaded seedings are provided sugar from older trees. They are also given resources that are dumped from dying or old trees. Likewise, trees release chemical signals to other trees through their roots. It seems Wood World Web help trees grow and defend themselves better. However, the network can be hacked by others like the World Wide Web. Nutrients could be stolen by other plants and toxic chemicals might be released by other species. Scientists haven’t figured out why trees live in such an altruistic way.
Enjoy watching this animation video and think about the messages released when trees are chainsawed or bulldozed.
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