Trees Interact Under the Ground: Research

Trees too have life. Now scientific studies hint, they also communicate with each other in their own special language. Let us try to understand how trees interact among themselves.

Many scientists believe that trees talk among themselves through underground root networks. However, all scientists do not agree with this.

Some recent scientific research hints at the existence of some intelligent communication modes between the plants.

For example, trees develop together, an intelligent network of fungal fibers hypothesized to transmit nutrients and information through the soil and help forests thrive. This process is seen as an interaction between trees.

This idea emerged in the late 1990s from studies showing that sugars and nutrients could flow underground between trees. In some forests, researchers have traced the fungus from the roots of one tree to another. Scientists and non-scientists alike have drawn grand and comprehensive conclusions from this research.

They postulate that shared fungal networks are ubiquitous in forests around the world and help trees communicate with each other.

At the same time, as the Wood-Wide Web has gained prominence, it has also inspired a backlash among scientists. In a recent review of published research, Karst, Hoeksema, and Melanie Jones, a biologist at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan, found little evidence that shared fungal networks help trees communicate, exchange resources, or thrive. Indeed, all three believe that trees interact, but have not yet confirmed whether these webs are widespread in forests or are ecologically important.

Justin Karst, a mycologist at the University of Alberta, was told by his son,  studying in the eighth grade, that he believed trees could talk to each other through an underground network. Another scientist, Jason Hoeksema from the University of Mississippi, also believes that trees interact among themselves after watching an episode of the American sports-comedy drama “Ted Lasso”.

In “Ted Lasso” Coach Beard said “You know, we used to believe that trees compete for light. Suzanne Simard’s field work challenged that perception, and we now realize that the forest is a socialist community. Trees work in harmony to share the sunlight.”

Who, knows in future we humans may develop some technology to speak with the trees that are part and parcel of our day to day life.