wood wahyd web | /wʊd waɪd wɛb/
Some 500 million years before Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet, another extraordinarily sophisticated network was busy exchanging vast quantities of data and goods. Instead of fibre-optic cables, mycorrhizal fungi* living in symbiotic relationships with plants have been using gossamer thin threads called hyphae to connect individual plants, forming complex communities dubbed the wood wide web.
The wood wide web was uncovered by Canadian ecologist Suzanne Simard in the 1990s. By injecting radioactive carbon isotopes into fir trees and tracking their progress, Simard and her colleagues unearthed a mycorrhizal network connecting not only individual trees but those of separate species. Subsequent studies have revealed the web’s inner workings and mind-boggling extent. A single cubic metre of soil may contain tens of kilometres of hyphae. Hyphal networks are not just restricted to woodlands – they are found wherever there is a community of plants.
The extremely fine filaments penetrate roots, allowing carbon sugars from the plants to be exchanged for nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen from the fungi. However, the web’s utility appears to go way beyond Darwinian mutualism. A network born of fungi should perhaps be expected to break the rules, but the activity observed in the wood wide web has caused some to question our basic assumptions about the nature of evolution. Instead of every plant for itself, mother trees have been tracked sending nutrients to saplings and dying trees donating theirs to their neighbours – including those of different species. Similarly, plants under attack from pests such as aphids send warnings out to their neighbours. As with our own www, there are also bad actors that use the hyphal dark web for individual gain at the expense of the greater good – some orchids selfishly draw carbon they could produce themselves, and marigolds release harmful pathogens to stifle the growth of rivals.
* Fungi are neither bacteria, plants, nor animals. First appearing in the fossil record around 1 billion years ago, there is estimated to be well over 2 million species, of which only 120,000 are known to science. Pictured is an Aseroe rubra, also known as a tentacled stinkhorn.
Introduction Aeolian Alpenglow
Benthos Crepuscular Crispate Crown shyness
Desire lines Dreich Endragoned Edgelands
Frondescence Fumarole Gluggaveður Gossamer
Karst Komorebi Lawrence Long acre
Machair Monkey’s wedding Moonglade
Psithurism Quartz Rakuyou Roaring forties
Snag Soft estate Specular, diffuse and pellucid
Spoondrift Steam fog Swash zone Sylvan
Tellurian and thalassic Terracettes Uliginous