Forests on Forests
4/24/202620 min
For much of history, tree canopies were pretty much completely ignored by science. It was as if researchers said collectively, "It's just going to be empty up there, and we've got our hands full studying the trees down here! So why bother?"
But then around the mid-1980s, a few ecologists around the world got curious and started making their way up into the treetops using any means necessary (ropes, cranes, hot air dirigibles) to document all they could find. It didn't take long for them to realize not only was the forest canopy not empty, it was absolutely filled to the brim with life. You've heard of treehouses? How about tree gardens?!
This week, we bring you a story we first released in 2022. We journey up into the sky and discover forests above the forest. We learn about the secret powers of these sky gardens from ecologist Korena Mafune, and we follow Nalini Nadkarni as she makes a ground-breaking discovery that changes how we understand what trees are capable of.
P.S. This episode is a layer cake of arboreal surprises (including the reappearance of a certain retired host.
LATERAL CUTS:
From Tree to Shining Tree (https://zpr.io/4cHtDdYTuNxT): The episode that started this journey, where we look down instead of up.
EPISODE CREDITS:
Reported by - Annie McEwen
Produced by - Annie McEwen
EPISODE CITATIONS:
Videos -
Inside the Fight to Save an Ancient Forest (and the Secrets it Holds) (https://zpr.io/XKipP2z4NFiM), by Michael Werner, Joe Hanson, and the PBS Overview team. We first learned about the magical world of the canopy from this beautiful video. It features Korena Mafune’s research up in the treetops, as well as the people who have dedicated their lives to saving what’s left of the old growth forests. We highly recommend checking it out!
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRobert Krulwich· Guest0:02
Yep. Wait, wait. You're listening [laughs] Okay. All right.
Annie McEwen0:05
Okay.
Robert Krulwich· Guest0:06
All right.
Latif Nasser· Host0:07
[clears throat] You're listening- Listening- To Radiolab. Radiolab.
Annie McEwen0:12
From- WNYC. See?
Robert Krulwich· Guest0:15
Yep.
Annie McEwen0:15
Rewind.
Latif Nasser· Host0:18
Hey, I'm Latif Nasser. This is Radiolab. One of our all-time most popular episodes was From Tree to Shining Tree, which was about these vast networks hidden in the forest floor.
Robert Krulwich· Guest0:36
She began thinking about the forest that exists underneath the forest.
Latif Nasser· Host0:40
That's Robert Krulwich, who was one of our hosts at the time. If you haven't heard the episode, you really should. We profiled this scientist, Suzanne Simard, who discovered, to even her own great surprise, these deeply complex, interwoven mats of tree roots and mushroom threads connecting trees together, helping them communicate, even share resources. I- like, there's a literal underground economy in every forest you've ever been to.
Robert Krulwich· Guest1:10
Turns out one tree was connected to 47 other trees all around it. It was like a huge network.
Nalini Nadkarni· Guest1:17
The trees that were the biggest and the oldest were the most highly connected. It's just this incredible communications network that, you know, people had no idea about in the past because we didn't know how to look.