the earth’s natural internet
“We need to have a paradigm shift in our consciousness. If we don’t get our act together and come in commonality and understanding with the organisms that sustain us today, not only will we destroy those organisms, but we will destroy ourselves.”
Since Darwinism, we have thought of trees as striving, disconnected loners, competing for water, nutrients and sunlight, with the winners shading out the losers and sucking them dry. We had previously thought of trees and plants as being regulated by the same kinds of survival-of-the-fittest mechanisms as animals and humans. Now, there is a building body of scientific evidence that suggests otherwise. It has been found that trees of the same species are communal, and will often form alliances with trees of other species. Forest trees have evolved to live in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence that is designed to support the survival and expansion of life.
What is being discovered is that trees are a just ‘sneak peak’ into a much larger complex underground network that operates seamlessly to provide for and sustain all life on earth. These deeply intelligent yet inconspicuous lines of communication are said to be ‘the Earth’s natural internet’, scientifically known as mycorrhizal networks. Tree roots don’t just come to an end like we once had thought — the fine, hairlike root tips of trees join together with microscopic fungal filaments to form the basic links of a network, operating as a symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi. The fungi consumes about 30% of the sugar produced by trees through photosynthesis from sunlight, which then fuels the fungi so it is able to scavenge the soil for nitrogen, phosphorus and other mineral nutrients, which are then absorbed and consumed by the trees.
As well as providing nutrition for plants, this underground fungi changes the chemical composition of the soil in which plants grow from. The fungi improves soil structure and aggregation, drives the structure of plant communities and productivity, improves drought and salinity tolerance, increases disease resistance in plants, and contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (nitrous oxide). The trees communicate with this fungi network below the ground through slow-pulsing electrical signals — a voltage-based signalling system that appears to be strikingly similar to animal nervous systems. Trees also communicate above the ground by emitting chemicals and hormones such as pheromones that act to deter threats to survival such as predators and attract support systems.
For example, when elms and pines come under attack by leaf-eating caterpillars, the trees detect the caterpillar saliva, and release pheromones that attract parasitic wasps. The wasps lay their eggs inside the caterpillars, and the wasp larvae eat the caterpillars from the inside out, thus deterring future caterpillars from the site.
Trees also produce and release phytoncides that provide antibacterial and anti-fungal protection from insect infestation and microbial infection, while simultaneously benefitting the immune system functioning and overall health in humans.
The collaboration between trees and fungi impacts us directly — we are becoming more aware of how essential it is to ensure that the mycorrhizal network remains healthy and functioning. Its comprehensive language and hidden complexity is something we are only just beginning to comprehend, and it is not something we would not be able to replace.
“Humankind has not woven the web of life; we are but one thread. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.”
References:
Berruti, A., Lumini, E., Balestrini, R., & Bianciotto, V. (2016). Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi as Natural Biofertilizers: Let's Benefit from Past Successes. Frontiers In Microbiology, 6. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2015.01559
Heaton, L., Obara, B., Grau, V., Jones, N., Nakagaki, T., Boddy, L., & Fricker, M. (2012). Analysis of fungal networks. Fungal Biology Reviews, 26(1), 12-29. doi: 10.1016/j.fbr.2012.02.001
Li, Q. (2010). Effect of Forest Bathing Trips on Human Immune Function. Environmental Health and Preventative Medicine. 15(1): 9-17.
Nguyen, C., Kurenda, A., Stolz, S., Chételat, A., & Farmer, E. (2018). Identification of cell populations necessary for leaf-to-leaf electrical signaling in a wounded plant. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 115(40), 10178-10183. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1807049115
