BPoD T-shirt and inter-tree lending

[eub]

http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/2010/03/mycorrhizal_networks.php

In wetter, mixed-species interior Douglas-fir forests, graduate student Brendan Twieg also used molecular tools to discover that Douglas-fir and paper birch (Betula papyrifera) trees can be linked together by species-rich mycorrhizal networks. We found that the mycorrhizal network serves as a belowground pathway for transfer of carbon from the nutrient-rich deciduous trees to nearby regenerating Douglas-fir seedlings. Moreover, we found that carbon transfer was enhanced when Douglas-fir seedlings were shaded in mid-summer, providing a subsidy that may be important in Douglas-fir survival and growth, thus helping maintain a mixed forest community during early succession. This is not a one-way subsidy, however; graduate Leanne Philip discovered that Douglas-fir supported their birch neighbours in the spring and fall by sending back some of this carbon when the birch was leafless.

Comments

[geekosaur]

Somehow "transfer fungi" doesn't have the same ring to it.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

Carbon-deciduous swaps will destroy their economy.

nifty!

[jeliza]

Forgive my lack of brain, but are the trees species helping each other directly, or is it that a separate organism has found some benefit to itself by acting as a middleman?

Re: nifty!

[eub.livejournal.com]

The "network" is fungi that interface with the tree roots, and act as a middleman, yeah -- or a series of middlemen? I'm not sure. (By "species-rich" do they mean the multiple tree species, or fungal species? Some mycorrhizal species are specialized to one or a few host species, so certainly could be the birches and Doug-firs have different immediate partners.) The more common or at least more-known situation is where a single plant-fungus partnership swaps nutrients, like phosphorus from the fungus and carbon from the plant.

[hosterman.livejournal.com]

That is just downright cool. And I would totally wear that shirt! =)