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If you were to go into any backyard or park and look carefully at the roots of the plants that grow there, you’d find that they were host to different kinds of fungi. And, although the fungi are technically parasites living off their hosts, they do great benefit – in fact the plants may well depend upon them for their survival. I’m Jim Metzner, and this is the Pulse of the Planet. We’re on a walk in New York’s Central Park, combing through plant growth with Duke University biologist Rytas Vilgalys.
ambience: leaves crackling
“When you begin to pull the litter back here, you can see a lot of plant roots here. Virtually all of these roots are infected by some kind of fungus that is going to aid the plant in absorbing nutrients And the other thing they do is they help prevent the plants from becoming infected by pathogens. Just like we have our healthy microbial flora in our guts, plants have certain fungi they associate with when they are healthy and if those fungi are not there, the plant can be exposed to infection by harmful fungi.”
The helpful fungi don’t only boost the health of individual plants. They can also form web-like structures between plant roots which can aid in providing balance to an entire ecosystem.
“There’s some data suggesting that the fungi actually help to redistribute nutrients among different forest trees. If you can imagine a single fungal individual growing in association with two different tree hosts there may be some transfer of nutrients between the different trees of a forest.”
Pulse of the Planet is presented with support provided by the National Science Foundation. I’m Jim Metzner.
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