[Ads-l] wood-wide web

[Barretts Mail]

The “wood-wide web” refers to the cooperative networks that mycorrhizal fungi and trees create for transferring water and nutrients (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhizal_network>).

1. In 1998, T. Helgason, T. J. Daniell, R. Husband, A. H. Fitter & J. P. W. Young published an article titled "Ploughing up the wood-wide web?” Other than the title, the term occurs only in the abstract:

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Key species groups that affect major ecological processes are vital components of community diversity. Many such key groups are found in the soil, including the mycorrhizal fungi that may connect plants into a functional “wood-wide web”. 
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2. Emily Stone (https://northernwilds.com/wood-wide-web/ <https://northernwilds.com/wood-wide-web/>, “The Wood Wide Web”, 30 Oct 2017) says that Suzanne Simard coined the term. 

According to Scholia (https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/Q26702907 <https://scholia.toolforge.org/author/Q26702907>), Simard’s first article was 1997 and her second 2002. The 1997 article is "Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field” (https://tinyurl.com/uhr4bc6b <https://tinyurl.com/uhr4bc6b>) and does not have the expression. I don’t see an earlier citation by her, but it is certainly possible that she was using the term in conferences or other communications before Helgason et al.

(On the topic of wood-wide webs: Simard gave a TEDTalk "How trees talk to each other” (https://tinyurl.com/2p987u3m <https://tinyurl.com/2p987u3m>, posted July 2016) in which she uses the word “web” but not “wood-wide web”.)

3. A shout out to Susan Anders for her 1996 quip in “New York Magazine” (https://tinyurl.com/zv3p7d3e <https://tinyurl.com/zv3p7d3e>):

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Web Du Bois—France Launches Its Version of Internet; i.e., the Wood Wide Web
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Benjamin Barrett (he/his/him)
Formerly of Seattle, WA
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org