The wood wide web

Just like we use the internet to communicate, it is now agreed that trees use a complex underground network to make contact with other trees and their surroundings.

The trees are 'talking'

An underground network of mycorrhizal fungi connect with the roots of different trees and other plants. Most fungi have the majority of their organism underground. The mushroom we see is a very tiny part. In the soil, a network of tiny thread-like roots called the mycelium exists in symbiotic relationship with the roots of trees – a mutualistic connection is made between the two organisms.

Mycelium hyphae

Through photosynthesis, trees produce food sugars which they can share with the fungus. At the same time, the fungus can absorb nutrients from the soil which it can share with the trees.

The mycelium network of fungi is able to transfer nutrients between trees and other plants.

Credit: ecowatch.com

It is now believed that trees can use the fungi network in the soil to ‘tell’ each other when they are sick or under attack from pests. Individual trees can send chemical signals to warn its neighbours via the fungi mycelium. 

There is even some evidence that hub or ‘mother’ trees can protect and foster the growth of their seedling offspring through the fungal network in the soil.

Next time you are in patch of forest, you might like to consider just how all the plants and other organisms are interconnected by the wood wide web.

 

Further Reading:

You Tube video LINK. Suzanne Simard, Ted talk, “How trees talk to each other”

BBC Earth LINK. “Plants talk to each other using an internet of fungus”

Smithsonian Magazine LINK. “Do trees talk to each other?”

Is it a Miner or a Myna?

The Miner, or more correctly, Noisy Miner, is the familiar grey, white, black and yellow honeyeater that is very territorial and aggressive to almost all other birds. The Myna, or more correctly, Common Myna, is the recognizable brown, black and yellow introduced bird from South-east Asia. Neither the native nor the introduced bird do a whole lot for avian diversity around our town.

Noisy Miners will sometimes unite in large, aggressive flocks to gang up on other birds and even some mammals and reptiles – Noisy Miners have been recorded hassling snakes, goannas, cats and dogs. While they have the typical honeyeater tongue for lapping nectar from a variety of native and introduced trees and shrubs, a large part of a Noisy Miner’s diet consists of insects and other invertebrates, fruit, and seed. Noisy Miners have also learnt to scavenge around parks and picnic grounds.

The native Noisy Miner honeyeater

Common Mynas were introduced to Melbourne in 1862, ostensibly to assist eradicating pest insects in the city’s market gardens. They quickly spread to other urban areas and have now become widespread throughout settled regions of SA, Vic, NSW and Q’land. Common Mynas often use gaps in structures like old sheds and outbuildings in which to construct their nests of sticks, feathers and rubbish. Unfortunately, they also adopt natural tree hollows for the same purpose, often aggressively chasing away native birds and mammals.

The introduced Common Myna

A close relative of the Noisy Miner is the easily recognizable Bell Miner – easily recognizable in our town and its surrounds by dint of its tinkling bell-like call. Bell Miners are the Bellbirds that are often heard and sometimes lauded in this district. Bell Miners have a very strict diet of lerp, an exudate of a sap sucking insect that exists on eucalypt foliage.

The other native honeyeater, Bell Miner or Bellbird

 

Bell Miners are sedentary colonisers. A colony of fifty or so birds might exist in the one, sometimes quite small location for many years. Like their Noisy Miner relatives, Bell Miners are aggressive toward many other birds. Some references now say that Noisy Miners and Bell Miners are more responsible for the decline in the number of other native bird species in some locations, than are Common Mynas and other introduced species like Starlings and Blackbirds.

 

Note:

The Noisy Miner has another very close relative in more arid areas of Australia, the Yellow-throated Miner. One variation of the Yellow-Throated Miner, the Black-eared Miner is extremely rare and highly endangered – but that is a story for another day.

 

 

Trees and people

There is evidence that since the 1950’s there has been a world-wide cultural shift away from nature. Despite the mountains of evidence pointing to the values of engaging with nature, respect and concern for the natural world appears to be in decline.

 

Our increasingly busy and internet-connected lifestyles it seems means we are more concerned about the latest app we need to download than pausing a moment to listen to some bird-song.

 

There are arguments that this disconnect with nature begins at school age. In 2002, a study in the UK determined that an average 8-year-old British child could identify 78% of all Pokémon characters, but only 53% of common British wildlife species.

 

Often, trees are the focus of the natural environment – they are large and long-lived and many have a sense of presence. The existence of trees in an urban situation can inspire either a sense of reverence or a sense of apprehension in the community while it might be said, many an urban-dweller is not bothered either way.

In this rapidly changing world, many of us are feeling troubled and at risk. Trees and nature are capable of providing a sense of composure and tranquillity. We should look to trees to help make sense of our busy lifestyles. 

Trees are a reminder to slow down and tune into the natural world. Trees are part of our past. They are in the present and they will be part of our future too.

PS: City of Boroondara (Hawthorn, Kew, Camberwell…) Tree Protection Local Law – LINK – read it and weep. When you get to point 17 Offences, one “penalty unit” (set by Victorian Gov’t) = $180.