Weird Wednesday: More Fun With Fungi

Pensive Tuesday will resume soon, but I'm having so much fun learning about the symbiosis of plants and fungi, I just gotta keep going!

Yesterday I learned that what we refer to as "carbon sequestration by forests" is actually "carbon sequestration by fungi", at least in the northern boreal forests. Huh?

Scientists in Sweden have found that while plants temporarily sequester carbon, they send it down to their roots as sugars, which are quickly eaten by symbiotic fungi. Those fungi that give the plants their Fungi-Net, or Fungaphones. The carbon then remains in the soil as residue. So between 50-70% of stored carbon in the soil is really from fungi, via the plants. It's always more complicated than it looks!

It's complicated....

As our climate keeps warming (or, to be more precise, as we keep warming our climate), it's not clear how this relationship which is so important for keeping it cool will be maintained. Drought and heat release the carbon from the soil, but will warming temperatures encourage greater forest growth and carbon sequestration? The net result remains to be seen, but now scientists are looking at the correct relationships in order to figure it out. Certainly deforestation of any kind is clearly a big bad for the climate, and for us.

Weird Wednesday: Say Hello With a Funga-Phone!

Enough art for awhile, I'm back to science today. I've often wondered how plants communicate with each other. No vocal chords, no silicon chip capability, no opposable thumbs. Poor, silent creatures, right? Turns out, they do chat with each other, via Funga-Phone!

Oh, the gossip in this place! The awful din!

Scientists in both Scotland and China have been studying how plants use their symbiotic soil fungi as a communication system. When a plant is attacked by pests, like nasty aphids, it can activate certain genes that protect it, or secrete pheromones that make it attractive to wasps that eat aphids. But how can it warn its neighbors that it's under attack by sticky green hordes? Originally, it was thought that plants could only use pheromones of alarm, carried on the breeze. But that's not very reliable. What if the wind isn't blowing, or is blowing the wrong way? Plants turn on their Funga-Phones....

Soil fungi form networks among plants, and the plants can pass communication molecules through their symbiotic fungi. In other words, it's like a Phyto-Internet. This method has only recently been discovered, so who knows what all plants can discuss?

But what about Tillandsias? They have no soil. How do they dish the dirt when they got no dirt??

Not much to talk about, again....

I suspect that in the wild, Tillies might utilize the fungi that grow on their host trees. Or maybe pass messages through their symbiotic ant networks. Or perhaps they have a different way to communicate entirely. It's definitely a possible avenue of research. Does anyone know how the TillyNet works??