Beneath the forest floor lies a communication network that predates the internet by 400 million years. Mycorrhizal fungi create vast underground webs that scientists call the "Wood Wide Web."
New research in Nature reveals this network is far more sophisticated than understood. Dr. Kenji Mori at UBC has shown fungal networks transmit chemical warning signals across 200 meters in under 72 hours.
"The fungi are actively routing signals," Dr. Mori explains. "They're making decisions about where to send information. It's genuinely computational."
"Every time we look closer at forests," says Dr. Mori, "we find they're less like collections of individuals competing, and more like communities cooperating for collective survival."