Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures by Merlin Sheldrake
@MerlinSheldrake
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52668915
Shaggy ink cap mushrooms, Coprinus comatus, drawn with ink made from shaggy ink cap mushrooms (by @collin_elder)
I've imagined this book to be a portrait of this neglected branch of the tree of life, but it's more tangled than that.
It is an account both of my journey towards understanding fungal lives, and of the imprint fungal lives have left on me and the many others
Chapter 1️⃣
In France, Saint Anthony – the patron saint of lost objects is regarded as the patron saint of truffles, and truffle masses are celebrated in his honour.
the split gill fungus, Schizophyllum commune, has over 23,000 mating types, each sexually compatible with nearly every one of the others
Chapter 2️⃣
Darwin: Intelligence is based on how efficient a species becomes at doing the things they need to survive
Many types of brainless organism respond to their environments in flexible ways, solve problems and make decisions between alternative courses of action
Ch 3️⃣
Schwendener: lichen fungus (known today as mycobiont) offered physical protection; acquired nutrients for itself & for algal cells
Algal partner (photobiont, a role sometimes played by photosynthetic bacteria) harvested light and CO2 to make sugars that provided energy
‘You see', wrote the English mycologist Beatrix Potter, best known for her children's books, 'we do not believe in Schwendener's theory.' (p81)
In joining forces, the fungal partners became part photobiont, and the photobionts part fungus. Yet lichens resemble neither.
Just as the chemical elements of hydrogen and oxygen combine to make water, so lichens are emergent phenomena, entirely more than the sum of their parts
As Goward emphasises; I often say that the only people who can't see a lichen are lichenologists. It's because they look at the parts, as scientists are trained to do. The trouble is that if you look at the parts of the lichen, you don't see the lichen itself
a lichen is one of the principal ingredients in the spice mix garam masala.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garam_masala
Chapter 4️⃣ Mycelial Minds
And an ant's death grip is part of the outward expression of the genome of Ophiocordyceps fungi (Dawkins’ extended phenotype)
Chapter 5️⃣
>90% plants depend on mycorrhizal fungi (mykes=fungi, rhiza=roots)
Plants pack up light and carbon dioxide into sugars and lipids. Mycorrhizal fungi unpack nutrients bound up in rock and decomposing material.
Mycorrhizal fungi can provide up to 80% of a plant's nitrogen, and as much as 100%of its phosphorus. Fungi supply other crucial nutrients to plants, such as zinc and copper.
In return, plants allocate up to 30% of the carbon they harvest to their mycorrhizal partners.
In parts of a mycelial network where phosphorus was scarce, the plant paid a higher 'price', supplying more carbon to the fungus for every unit of phosphorus it received.
Where phosphorus was more readily available, the fungus received a less favourable 'exchange rate'.
The 'price' of phosphorus seemed to be governed by the familiar dynamics of supply and demand.
Whiteside, @KiersToby (2019)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982219304907
The fungus was able to transfer a greater proportion of its phosphorus to the plant at the more favourable 'exchange rate', thus receiving larger quantities of carbon in return. #buylowsellhigh (p152-153)
Lessons from fungi on markets and economics |
TED talk 2019 Toby Kiers
Mycorrhizal associations born of the Anthropocene will determine much of humans' ability to adapt to the worsening climate emergency. Nowhere are the possibilities – and pitfalls – more apparent than in agriculture.
Intensive farming practices – through a combination of ploughing and application of chemical fertilisers or fungicides – reduce the abundance of mycorrhizal fungi and alter the structure of their communities.
Chapter 6️⃣ Wood wide web
Mycorrhizal networks have an important ecological role
Simard (1997) 6% Carbon 🌳 ➡️ 🌲 via fungi
2106 study: 280 kg of carbon per hectare of forest could be transferred between trees via fungal connections; 4% total carbon/yr pulled out atmosphere
Mycoheterotrophs: dependent on fungus for nutrition, don’t make own energy. All ~25,000 orchids are
Diverse portfolio of plant partners insures fungus against death of 1 of them
🍄 brokers of entanglement mediate interactions btwn plants according to their own fungal needs
p179
Many of the researchers I have talked with share the view that plant communication through fungal networks is one of the most compelling aspects of mycorrhizal behaviour.
(p183)
Chapter 7️⃣ Radical Mycology
White rot fungi (eg Shiitake) can break down the lignin in wood.
Non-specific enzymes (peroxidases) release a highly reactive molecules, 'free radicals', which crack open lignin's tightly bonded structure in a process known as 'enzymatic combustion'
Fungal decomposition – much of it of woody plant matter – emits ~85 gigatonnes of carbon to the atmosphere every year
In 2018, the combustion of fossil fuels by humans emitted ~10 gigatonnes
Paul Stamets TED2008
6 ways mushrooms can save the world
Radical Mycology: Training a Mushroom to Remediate Cigarette Filters
Stamets et al (2018) Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32194-8
Chapter 8️⃣ Making Sense of Fungi
The Linnaean system of taxonomy was designed for animals and plants, and doesn't easily cope with fungi, lichens or bacteria.
Against the naming of fungi – N. Money (2013)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1878614613000871
The dominant narrative of evolutionary theory was one of conflict and competition.
Mutualistic relationships, such as those that give rise to lichens, or plants' relationships with mycorrhizal fungi, were curious exceptions to the rule
p234
Final story in the book: making cider from Newton’s apple tree (from apples & yeast on them) and calling it Gravity
Oorspronkelijk getweet door Wilte Zijlstra (@wilte) op 5 april 2021.
wilte 