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For me, I've conducted and published hundreds of experiments in the forest.
對我來說，我在森林中已經進行和發表過上百次的實驗了。
Some of my oldest experimental plantations are now over 30 years old.
有一些我最早進行實驗的種植園，到現在已經超過30年了。
You can check them out. That's how forest science works.
你可以去看看它們。這才是搞林業學應該做的事。
So now I want to talk about the science.
那么現在我想談一談科學本身了。
How were paper birch and Douglas fir communicating?
紙皮樺和花旗松到底是怎么交流的呢？
Well, it turns out they were conversing not only in the language of carbon but also nitrogen and phosphorus
實際上，它們不僅僅使用碳元素作為它們交流的語言，其實還有氮元素和磷元素，
and water and defense signals and allele chemicals and hormones -- information.
還有水、防衛信號、等位基因化學物和激素--這些都是信息。
And you know, I have to tell you, before me, scientists had thought
你知道嗎，我得告訴你們，在我之前的科學家們都認為
that this belowground mutualistic symbiosis called a mycorrhiza was involved.
這種地下的互惠共生現象是因為一種菌根介入其中的。
Mycorrhiza literally means "fungus root."
菌根的字面意思就是“真菌的根部”。
You see their reproductive organs when you walk through the forest. They're the mushrooms.
當你穿行在森林中時，你經常都能看到它們的繁殖器官。它們就是蘑菇。
The mushrooms, though, are just the tip of the iceberg,
而其實那些蘑菇僅僅是冰山一角，
because coming out of those stems are fungal threads that form a mycelium,
因為從那些樹干里冒出來的菌絲生成了菌絲體，
and that mycelium infects and colonizes the roots of all the trees and plants.
菌絲體會感染和占領樹木和植物的根。
And where the fungal cells interact with the root cells, there's a trade of carbon for nutrients,
在真菌細胞和根細胞交流的地方，時時刻刻都發生著為了獲取營養的碳交易，
and that fungus gets those nutrients by growing through the soil and coating every soil particle.
真菌靠著在土地里生長，并且覆蓋住所有的土壤顆粒來獲取養分。
The web is so dense that there can be hundreds of kilometers of mycelium under a single footstep.
這個網絡無比密集以至于在你每走過一步腳下的菌絲連起來可以有幾百公里長。
And not only that, that mycelium connects different individuals in the forest,
不僅如此，菌絲跟森林中其它的個體也都有聯系，
individuals not only of the same species but between species, like birch and fir, and it works kind of like the Internet.
這種聯系不僅僅在單一的種類中存在，在不同種類之間也存在，比如紙皮樺和花旗松，而且它的工作原理就像是互聯網一樣。
