Forest Sharing: Trees Trade Nutrients With Each Other Through Complex Root Network

Researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland reveal that trees trade nutrients via underground web. The trees are linked by mycorrhiza, a fungus that empowers the roots to free up nutrients from the soil which are then absorbed by other tree roots. The sugar also helps nutrients to be taken up by the tree roots.

Science Daily reports that the study was published in the journal Science. Trees and some green plants aid photosynthesis to change carbon dioxide (CO2) into cellulose, sugar and other carbon-containing carbohydrates needed for growth and food. The researchers, led by Dr. Rolf Siegwolf of Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), Prof. Christian Korner and Dr. Tamir Klein of the University of Basel, said that the transport of sugar goes further than earlier thought.

The researchers utilized a network of fine tubes and a construction crane to spray the crowns of 120-year-old and 131 feet (40 meters) tall spruce trees with carbon dioxide that have been labeled in a forest near Basel. The botanists trace the carbon in the whole tree using an atomic mass spectrometer. With this, they can track the way of the carbon that is taken up by photosynthesis from the crown to the roots. They discovered that the labeled carbon dioxide was not only found in the marked spruce trees but also through the roots of the neighboring trees, even though they did not receive the labeled carbon dioxide. These also include trees from another species.

Dr. Klein said that he was surprised and found the isotopes signature in other roots, according to Tech Times. The isotopes designated the bidirectional and interspecific transfer of carbon that is assisted by ectomycorrhiza networks. The carbon transport between trees is estimated to be about 280 kilograms per hectare per (611 pounds per hectare) a year or 4 percent of the total forest carbon uptake. Some carbon isotopes were disbursed by spruce trees through photosynthesis.