1. Imagine you're walking through a forest. I'm guessing you're thinking of a collection of trees. Yes, trees are the foundation of forests, but a forest is much more than what you see, and today I want to change the way you think about forests. You see, underground there is this other world, a world of infinite biological pathways that connect trees and allow them to communicate and allow the forest to behave as though it's a single organism. It might remind you of a sort of intelligence.
想象你正穿行在森林中。我猜你想的是一大片樹，是的，樹是森林的基礎，但是森林可比你看到的復雜多了，而今天我想改變一下你們對森林的看法。你知道嗎，森林的地下是另外一個世界，一個擁有無限的生物通路的世界，這些通路把樹木連接起來，使得它們可以彼此溝通，也使森林表現得好像一個單獨的有機體。這可能會讓你想到某種程度的智慧。
Trees in real forests might also share information below ground. It turns out at that time of the year, in the summer, that birch was sending more carbon to fir than fir was sending back to birch, especially when the fir was shaded. And then in later experiments, we found the opposite, that fir was sending more carbon to birch than birch was sending to fir, and this was because the fir was still growing while the birch was leafless.
在真正的森林中，樹木可能還會在地下交流信息。結果還表明在每年的這個時間，在夏天的時候，紙皮樺給花旗松送的碳比花旗松反送給它的要多，特別是當花旗松見不到陽光的時候。而在隨后的實驗中，我們發現了相反的情況，花旗松給紙皮樺送的碳比紙皮樺給它的碳多，這是因為當紙皮樺樹葉掉光了的時候花旗松還在不停的生長。
So it turns out the two species were interdependent, like yin and yang. I knew I had found something big, something that would change the way we look at how trees interact in forests, from not just competitors but to cooperators.
這就說明這兩種樹其實是相互依賴的，就像“陰”和“陽”。在那個時候，事情開始變得清晰起來。我知道我有了重大發現，這個發現可以改變我們對森林中樹木互動方式的看法，樹木之間不僅有競爭關系，同時也有合作關系。

2. How were paper birch and Douglas fir communicating? Well, it turns out they were conversing not only in the language of carbon but also information. The web is so dense that there can be hundreds of kilometers of mycelium under a single footstep. And not only that, that mycelium connects different individuals in the forest, and it works kind of like the Internet.
紙皮樺和花旗松到底是怎么交流的呢？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，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。不僅如此，菌絲跟森林中其它的個體也都有聯系，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。
You see, like all networks, mycorrhizal networks have nodes and links. The biggest, darkest nodes are the busiest nodes. We call those hub trees, or more fondly, mother trees, because it turns out that those hub trees nurture their young, the ones growing in the understory. In a single forest, a mother tree can be connected to hundreds of other trees.
你們看，就像所有的網絡一樣，真菌的網絡中也有節點和鏈接。那些最大的、顏色最深的節點就是最繁忙的、連接最多的節點。我們把它們稱作中心樹，或者更親切地稱之為母樹。因為事實證明，這些中心樹哺育著它們的小樹，那些小樹都處在林下葉層。在一片森林中，一棵母樹可以和其它幾百棵樹建立聯系。
Mother trees colonize their kin with bigger mycorrhizal networks. They send them more carbon below ground. They even reduce their own root competition to make elbow room for their kids. When mother trees are injured or dying, they also send messages of wisdom on to the next generation of seedlings. So trees talk. Through back and forth conversations, they increase the resilience of the whole community.
母樹通過更大的菌根網絡來覆蓋住自己孩子們所在的區域。在地下，它們給孩子們會送去更多的碳。它們甚至會減少它們自己和其它樹根部的競爭，來為它們的孩子們創造更多的活動空間。當母樹受傷或即將枯死的時候，它們還會把智慧信息傳給下一代的幼苗。所以樹是會說話的。通過反反復復的對話，它們增強了整個團體的恢復力。
3. So let's come back to the initial point. Forests aren't simply collections of trees, they're complex systems with hubs and networks that overlap and connect trees and allow them to communicate, and they provide avenues for feedbacks and adaptation, and this makes the forest resilient. You see, you can take out one or two hub trees, but there comes a tipping point, because hub trees are not unlike rivets in an airplane. You can take out one or two and the plane still flies, but you take out one too many, or maybe that one holding on the wings, and the whole system collapses.
那么讓我們回到最初的話題吧。森林不是簡簡單單的樹的“集合”，森林是擁有樞紐和網絡的復雜系統，它可以承載樹木并且把樹連接起來，使得它們可以互相溝通，它給樹木提供了互相反饋的渠道和適應的方式，也使得森林的恢復力變得更強。你們看，我們可以拿走一兩顆中心樹，但這樣就會達到森林承受極限了，因為森林里的中心樹就像是飛機里的鉚釘。你卸下一兩個鉚釘的話飛機還能飛，但是如果你一次卸下太多，或是僅僅卸下固定機翼的那一顆鉚釘，整個系統就要崩潰了。
So I want to come back to my final question: instead of weakening our forests, how can we reinforce them and help them deal with climate change? First, we all need to get out in the forest. We need to reestablish local involvement in our own forests. Second, we need to save our old-growth forests. These are the repositories of genes and mother trees and mycorrhizal networks. And third, when we do cut, we need to save the legacies, the mother trees and networks, and the wood, the genes, so they can pass their wisdom onto the next generation of trees so they can withstand the future stresses coming down the road. And finally, we have to give Mother Nature the tools she needs to use her intelligence to self-heal.
所以現在我想提我的最后一個問題：與破壞我們的森林相反，我們怎么才能讓它們變得更強大，怎么才能幫助它們應對氣候變化呢？首先，我們都得走出家門，走進森林。我們需要重新使當地的居民融入到我們森林中去。第二，我們需要保護好我們的古老森林。保護好它們就是保護好了森林的基因庫、保護好了母樹和菌根網絡。第三，當我們伐木時，我們需要保護森林的“遺產”——母樹和菌根網絡，還有樹干和基因，這樣它們就能把它們的智慧傳給下一代的樹木，這樣整個森林就能禁得起未來將會面對的重重困難了。最后，第四點，我們需要給大自然母親她需要的工具，好讓她用自己的智慧來進行自愈。