Ep 10: Suzanne Simard on How Trees Communicate with Each Other

In this episode, Kalina Christoff is joined by forest ecology expert Suzanne Simard to discuss how trees communicate with each other through a sophisticated fungal network of underground connectivity. Simard shares how she arrived at the idea to start testing if trees communicate to each other and how she has turned her passion into her life's work. Listen in as she explains the complexity of the hidden world under our feet and what we can learn from the forests around us.

Suzanne Simard is a Professor at the UBC Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences and the leader of The Mother Tree Project. She can be heard giving talks for TED and Radiolab.

Listen to episode ten below, and make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

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Links to content mentioned in this episode:

• Suzanne Simard (2016) How Trees Talk to Each Other . TED Summit.
• The Mother Tree Project
• Beiler, K.J., Durall, D.M., Simard, S.W., Maxwell, S.A., & Kretzer, A.M. (2010) Architecture of the wood-wide web: Rhizopogon spp. genets link multiple Douglas-fir cohorts. New Phytologist 185: 543-553.
• Mother Tree, a short film by Dan McKinney 
• The Mother Tree Project, a short film by Bill Heath

 

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