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We now have evidence of how old trees share critical intel with forest youth
Remarkable research has unlocked new understanding of the mysterious ways trees communicate and share knowledge with each other – and much like in many animal species, the wisdom of age plays a vital role.
An international team of scientists from Australia's Southern Cross University (SCU) and the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have for the first time recorded the specific ways birch trees in the Costa Bocche forest in the Dolomites use bioelectrical signals to prepare for solar eclipses. And because all organisms are driven by survival – from viruses to apex predators – this electrome system appears to be the way this forest-wide network of birch trees ( Picea abies) inform their neighbors to prepare for an environmental disruption. “By applying advanced analytical methods – including complexity measures and quantum field theory –we have uncovered a deeper, previously unrecognized dynamic synchronization not based on matter exchanges among trees,” said Professor Alessandro Chiolerio of the IIT.
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