These fungi are able to have a conversation in the forest, researchers say - study

The study also showed that the fungi have stronger communication shortly after heavy rainfall.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF, MAY 7, 2023

https://www.jpost.com/science/article-742268

A Forest in the Gilboa mountain range in Israel (photo credit: ALBATROSS)

Fungi can reportedly communicate with each other in the forest, researchers have concluded in a recent study.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Fungal Ecology, states that ectomycorrhizal fungi have the ability to form networks that allow them to communicate with each other through roots that stretch out underground.

Researchers measured the bioelectrical activity of the fungi Laccaria bicolor to examine its response to the environment, according to the study. The research utilized six L. bicolor fruit bodies. It shows that bodies of L. bicolor's electrical potential and communications rose after heavy rain, which often went hand-in-hand with precipitation.

The research team attached electrodes to six mushrooms in a cluster shortly after receiving the information on L. bicolor fruit bodies. The fungi's signals spiked after the rainfall throughout the study.

Analysis of the fungi's electrical potential after heavy rain showed signal transports among the L.bicolor fruit bodies.

Forest near Dundukovo dam in Central Bulgaria (credit: Gvm/CC BY-SA 3.0/(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)/VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS)

Fungi area able to warn each other

The fungi are able to communicate messages such as warnings of dangerous diseases or insects and coordinate how groups of fungi can grow in a way that all of them can obtain as many nutrients as possible.

"The preliminary results bring a call for studies on fungal electrical potentials in a more ecological context under field conditions."
The study's researchers

Researchers received this information by conducting a field study of the fungi as opposed to testing them within laboratories. Researchers said there should be a "call for studies on fungal electrical potentials in a more ecological context under field conditions," they wrote in the study.