This Canadian ecologist discovered how trees communicate underground

New book explores the ground-breaking research into how trees communicate underground Suzanne Simard is a Professor of Forest Ecology at the University of B.C., and joins us to talk about her memoir, ‘Finding The Mother Tree’.

Toronto — A renowned Canadian forest ecologist whose work inspired a key element of the film "Avatar" tells the story of her life and work in a new book.

The book, “Finding the Mother Tree,” details the childhood and scientific work of Suzanne Simard, whose discovery that trees are connected via fungal webs below ground captured the attention of scientists, academics and Hollywood alike.

“I was trying to understand diseases that were running through our plantations in British Columbia, and I wanted to know what we had done with our clear cutting and planting practices that had disrupted that system,” Simard said Wednesday on CTV's Your Morning. “And that led me to look at and discover that there are these other kinds of fungal threads that run through the forest and connect trees together. These are mycorrhizal, mutualistic fungi that the trees need to get resources.”

Simard, who is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia, is best known for that discovery that networks of underground fungi allow connected trees to share resources, such as water, nutrients and carbon.

“They have very sophisticated ways of communicating- we call it talking- but this is much more nuanced and unique to trees in that they share water and nutrients and carbon and phosphorus between trees through these fungal threads that connect them, so [it’s] like messages that run through telephone lines,” she said.

Through these networks, Simard discovered that trees are not only able to share resources, but they are also able to communicate with one another.

“They also communicate about their health, what kind of stress they’re under, whether they’re shaded, whether they’re out in the sunlight and whether they’re related to each other,” Simard says.

Simard also helped identify something called “mother trees,” which she describes as trees that act as hubs for spreading fungal networks by infecting seedlings that have fallen to the forest floor.

“These fungal threads also are a big scaffolding or a big network that seedlings, when seeds fall to the forest floor, tap into that network almost right away in their lives, and they start getting the water and nutrients they need from the soil,” Simard said. “And these old trees also send the subsides of carbon and water and information that helps them survive and grow and be healthy individuals, so it’s a really crucial way that trees are able to regenerate in subsequent regenerations.”

Simard’s work on this interconnectedness was crucial to changing the scientific understanding of the relationship between trees, which Simard says had always suggested that trees are in competition with each other, rather than cooperation.

Her discovery was also the basis for the “Tree of Souls” in James Cameron’s "Avatar".

Simard’s new book follows her path to this discovery, beginning in her childhood growing up around the forest of British Columbia, up until her work as a scientist.

“My book is a story about the whole discovery of these networks, from my childhood all the way up until adulthood and how my life played such an important role in it,” she said. “I think that storytelling, combined with the science, is really compelling.”

Her work has again drawn the attention of Hollywood, with production companies fronted by Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal picking the book up for a film adaptation.

Simard said she is hopeful that her book and the film adaptation will educate people on the relationship between trees and the impact of logging.

“What’s going on in our forests, the clear cutting in Canada, we really have created a different kind of environment in Canada with our extensive logging and I think that...bringing that to the screen and helping people understand whats going on in our forest and what it means for us as people, I think is a compelling story for Amy Adams to tell,” Simard says.