3 ms·

Most people don't know that forests are actually a vast network of underground fungi "highways" that communicate, analyse and distribute resources across the wh

Most people don't know that forests are actually a vast network of underground fungi "highways" that communicate, analyse and distribute resources across the whole forest. Dying trees literally distribute their resources to healthy ones, and trees that lack nitrogen get it from other trees whose roots and bacteria produce too much. Bacteria use those highways to distribute themselves, where bacteria is needed for fertilization. Plant life and natural intelligence is right in front of us, we are just too stubborn to admit it. The more you research about fungi, the more you see how nature really works.

concordDance 3y ago
> analyse and distribute resources across the whole forest > Dying trees literally distribute their resources to healthy ones, I'm struggling to imagine how such genes could possibly reach fixation. Want to explain?
- retrac 3y ago
  The evolution of altruistic behaviours is unclear. There is no single universally accepted reason. The most common argument is probably that it was selected for in the same way your genes would have a survival advantage even if you die while helping your cousin or sibling or just fellow human survive. Because they're almost genetically identical to you, their survival is almost the same as your survival, from the gene's perspective.
- cookiengineer 3y ago
  > Want to explain? [1] and [2] are introductions to the mycorrhizal networks and how they work on a chemical and biological basis, [3] and [4] are really nicely presented talks about it, by renominated researchers. It's so ridiculous that they even found evidence that the connections between seedlings and their mother trees are stronger and more reliant than to others; which seems to suggest that they recognize their own offspring once it grows up. There's also a huge organization that focusses on research of mapping those vast networks, called SPUN (society for protecting underground networks) [5] On a darwinistic level I'd argue that once there probably was a stage in evolution when plants could not survive on their own in harsh weather conditions, the ones that survived were able to communicate and exchange "goods" for their own benefits; like exchanging sugar against nitrogen in case you had too much of it that you wouldn't need anyways. (I'm no biologist so don't take my advice on anything on the topic, I am only building algae-fungi based bio reactors to try to find a way to bind carbon dioxide and put it into proteins as a food source as a hobby project) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kHZ0a_6TxY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kHZ0a_6TxY [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCERNXtvMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCERNXtvMA [5] https://www.spun.earth/ https://www.spun.earth/
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]

concordDance 3y ago

> analyse and distribute resources across the whole forest > Dying trees literally distribute their resources to healthy ones, I'm struggling to imagine how such genes could possibly reach fixation. Want to explain?

retrac 3y ago
The evolution of altruistic behaviours is unclear. There is no single universally accepted reason. The most common argument is probably that it was selected for in the same way your genes would have a survival advantage even if you die while helping your cousin or sibling or just fellow human survive. Because they're almost genetically identical to you, their survival is almost the same as your survival, from the gene's perspective.
cookiengineer 3y ago
> Want to explain? [1] and [2] are introductions to the mycorrhizal networks and how they work on a chemical and biological basis, [3] and [4] are really nicely presented talks about it, by renominated researchers. It's so ridiculous that they even found evidence that the connections between seedlings and their mother trees are stronger and more reliant than to others; which seems to suggest that they recognize their own offspring once it grows up. There's also a huge organization that focusses on research of mapping those vast networks, called SPUN (society for protecting underground networks) [5] On a darwinistic level I'd argue that once there probably was a stage in evolution when plants could not survive on their own in harsh weather conditions, the ones that survived were able to communicate and exchange "goods" for their own benefits; like exchanging sugar against nitrogen in case you had too much of it that you wouldn't need anyways. (I'm no biologist so don't take my advice on anything on the topic, I am only building algae-fungi based bio reactors to try to find a way to bind carbon dioxide and put it into proteins as a food source as a hobby project) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kHZ0a_6TxY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kHZ0a_6TxY [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un2yBgIAxYs [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCERNXtvMA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCERNXtvMA [5] https://www.spun.earth/ https://www.spun.earth/
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]