A Forest Ecologist is holding a lecture at UNBC on how fungi and plants hold a special relationship in the wilderness.
Andy MacKinnon explains how this collaboration benefits the forest in BC.
“Almost all of the plants have fungi associated with their root and those fungi have filament that run through the soil and gather water and minerals and bring them back to the plants including the trees. The plants, can photosynthesis, can make sugars or food and they send some of that down to their roots. And that’s how these fungi associated with the root of the tree.”
MacKinnon says without the fungi attached to the roots, trees wouldn’t grow as well and some of them would die.
This changes the way we look at forest because we use to think that it was more of a competition instead of collaboration says MacKinnon.
“When we understand the forest, in terms of all the organisms that are living there including the relationship between the plants and the fungi, it becomes apparent there is a lot more collaboration, a lot more cooperation driving the development of those forests.”
His Lecture titles, Competition and Collaboration start at 7:30pm in the Canfor Theater.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
