Trees Can Communicate and Share Nutrients Through Underground Fungal Networks
The Wood Wide Web
In 1997, ecologist Suzanne Simard published a landmark paper in Nature demonstrating that trees in a forest exchange carbon through underground fungal networks called mycorrhizal networks. The media quickly nicknamed this the "Wood Wide Web".
These networks form when fungal threads (hyphae) interweave with tree roots, creating a symbiosis: the fungi get sugars from the tree, and the tree gets improved access to water and minerals. But the network doesn't stop there.
What Trees Share
- Carbon: Large "mother trees" funnel excess photosynthetic carbon to smaller seedlings in shade that can't produce enough themselves.
- Water: During drought, trees have been observed routing water from wetter areas of the network to struggling neighbours.
- Chemical signals: When a tree is attacked by insects, it sends chemical warnings through the network, triggering neighbouring trees to boost their own defensive compounds.
A single Douglas fir can be connected to hundreds of other trees through a single mycorrhizal network.
Forests Are Not Collections of Individuals
This research fundamentally changed how ecologists view forests. Rather than a competitive collection of individual organisms fighting for light and resources, a forest appears to function more like a cooperative superorganism — with the mycorrhizal network acting as a kind of nervous system.
When a mother tree is dying, it has been observed accelerating the transfer of carbon and defence signals to surrounding trees — essentially passing on its resources to the community before it goes.
