The ‘Wood Wide Web’ of Plant Communication“樹聯(lián)網(wǎng)”：植物的社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)

薩拉·布恩　賀叢芝/譯

Imagine being a world-class scientist whose work was immortalized in James Camerons movie Avatar， and who inspired a character in Richard Powers Pulitzer-winning novel The Overstory. Others have written about her research， including Peter Wohlleben in The Hidden Life of Trees. Now， we finally hear from the scientist herself， Suzanne Simard， in Finding the Mother Tree： Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.

想象一下，有這樣一位世界級(jí)的科學(xué)家，她的工作在詹姆斯·卡梅隆的電影《阿凡達(dá)》中得到了不朽之名，她也是理查德·鮑爾斯的普利策獲獎(jiǎng)小說《上層林冠》中某角色的靈感來源。還有人曾寫過她的研究，包括彼得·沃萊本的《樹木的隱秘生活》。現(xiàn)在，我們終于聽到了這位科學(xué)家本人的聲音，她就是蘇珊娜·西瑪?shù)隆Ｏ旅婢蛠斫榻B她的書《尋找母樹：發(fā)掘森林的智慧》。

Her book comes at a time when governments in Western Canada in particular are being confronted over their continued approval of old-growth forest logging. It is a vital look at the importance of how we harvest and reforest wooded landscapes， and the misconceptions that have plagued the forest industry since the 1980s.

她的書上市的時(shí)候，西加拿大的各地方政府正因繼續(xù)支持砍伐古老的原始森林而遭到反對(duì)。這本書在兩方面做了重要闡釋，一是了解采伐林木和重新造林方式的重要性，二是審視1980年代以來一直困擾林業(yè)的錯(cuò)誤觀念。

The book starts at the beginning of that decade， with Simard checking logged patches of forest （clear-cuts） for a logging company to see if theyd been properly replanted. She is no stranger to forestry， as her family were loggers in south-central British Columbia back when logging was done by hand with a crosscut saw and a horse to drag the logs out of the forest. But the forest industry she now works for is completely different than it was in those early days.

這本書從20世紀(jì)80年代初開始寫起，當(dāng)時(shí)西瑪?shù)路?wù)于一家伐木公司，負(fù)責(zé)檢查森林采伐區(qū)（皆伐區(qū)）是否妥善完成更新造林。她對(duì)林業(yè)并不陌生，她的家人是不列顛哥倫比亞省中南部的伐木工人。那時(shí)候是手工作業(yè)，使用橫切鋸砍伐樹木，然后用馬把木材運(yùn)出森林。她現(xiàn)在從事的森林產(chǎn)業(yè)與早期已經(jīng)完全不同。

She finds that the companys seedlings， placed in regulation holes at a set depth， failed to root and are dying instead. “There was an utter， maddening disconnect between the roots and the soil，” she writes. By looking at the roots of seedlings that are regenerating naturally， she gets an inkling1 that trees need to connect to the fungal （also called mycorrhizal） network in the soil if they are to thrive—without it， they dont have access to vital nutrients.

她發(fā)現(xiàn)，這家公司把幼樹種在深度一致、分布均勻的坑里，這些幼樹無(wú)法扎根，正在死去。“樹根與土壤之間完全脫節(jié)，讓人十分惱火。”她寫道。通過觀察自然再生的幼樹根部，她約略了解到，如果樹木想要茁壯成長(zhǎng)，就需要與土壤中的真菌（也稱為菌根）網(wǎng)絡(luò)相連接。沒有真菌，它們就無(wú)法獲得必需的營(yíng)養(yǎng)。

The book outlines her quest to learn more about this network， a question around which she shaped her entire car-eer， from working with the forest service studying forest growth， to becoming a university professor in her early 40s. Her research is focused on understanding the underground connections between trees of various species， and how instead of competing， they are actually interdependent and cooperate with one another. Competition is the foundation of evolutionary theory and natural selection， and “the prevailing wisdom was that trees only compete with one another to survive，” she writes. So finding that trees cooperate could present an evolutionary paradox.

這本書概述了她對(duì)真菌網(wǎng)絡(luò)更多的探索，從供職林務(wù)局研究森林生長(zhǎng)，到40歲出頭成為一名大學(xué)教授，她的整個(gè)職業(yè)生涯都圍繞這個(gè)課題展開。她的研究重點(diǎn)是了解不同樹種之間根部的聯(lián)系，以及它們實(shí)際上是如何相互依賴、彼此合作，而不是相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的。競(jìng)爭(zhēng)是進(jìn)化論和自然選擇的基礎(chǔ)，“當(dāng)時(shí)的主流觀點(diǎn)是，樹木只會(huì)為了生存而相互競(jìng)爭(zhēng)”。她這樣寫道。因此，發(fā)現(xiàn)樹木之間相互合作可能造成進(jìn)化悖論。

As a government scientist， Simard helped foresters understand how to best manage forests. Her early work focused on the government policy of “free-to-grow，” which required contractors to dose harvested forest blocks with herbicide so there wouldnt be any shrubs or trees， like alder and birch， competing with replanted seedlings for water， light， or nutrients. Beginning in the late 1980s， she set out to prove that the pol-icy was misguided2 with a series of well-designed experiments that examined the role of alder and birch in the regrowth of planted seedlings.

作為一名政府的科學(xué)家，西瑪?shù)聨椭o(hù)林員了解如何最好地管理森林。她早期的工作側(cè)重于政府的“自由生長(zhǎng)”政策，該政策要求承包商在森林采伐區(qū)使用除草劑，以免灌木或榿木、樺樹等樹木與再植幼樹搶奪水分、光照或營(yíng)養(yǎng)。20世紀(jì)80年代末，她開始著手用一系列精心設(shè)計(jì)的實(shí)驗(yàn)證明，這項(xiàng)政策是錯(cuò)誤的——這些實(shí)驗(yàn)研究榿木、樺樹對(duì)幼樹再生的作用。

Her findings were compelling， showing that alder contributed nitrogen to growing fir seedlings， while cutting birch trees made fir seedlings more susceptible to root disease. She used her data to model tree growth over a hundred years， finding that free-to-grow plantations produce a lower volume of timber of poorer quality than plantations not weeded or treated with herbicide. But government decision-makers didnt consider her work long-term or representative enough. The free-to-grow policy wasnt revamped until 2000， almost 10 years after she presented results from the first five years of her experiments.

她的研究成果非常有說服力，研究表明榿木可以為栽培冷杉苗提供氮，而砍掉樺樹，冷杉苗根部更容易患病。她用自己的數(shù)據(jù)模擬了樹木100多年的生長(zhǎng)過程，發(fā)現(xiàn)相比沒有鏟除周圍野草或施用除草劑的林場(chǎng)，“自由生長(zhǎng)”的林場(chǎng)產(chǎn)出的木材數(shù)量更少、質(zhì)量更差。但是，政府決策者認(rèn)為她的研究時(shí)間不夠長(zhǎng)，也不夠具有代表性。直到2000年，在她公布前5年的實(shí)驗(yàn)結(jié)果將近10年以后，“自由生長(zhǎng)”的政策才得以修訂。

Throughout the book， Simard struggles to have her voice heard by policymakers， though she feels she has to speak up in an attempt to change logging and replanting practices in a way that maintains forest diversity. Part of the problem initially was that she was a woman in a mans world， but her findings also went against commonly held conceptions in the forest industry. Some researchers didnt take her scientific results seriously， even though they were published in peer-reviewed journals like Nature， which coined the term “wood wide web” in 1997 in reference to her research.

在整本書中，西瑪?shù)屡ψ屨咧贫ㄕ呗牭剿穆曇簟ＫX得，為了改變采伐和再植的傳統(tǒng)做法，以保護(hù)森林多樣性，她必須公開發(fā)聲。最初遇到的問題是，她是一名女性，生活在男性的世界中，她的發(fā)現(xiàn)也有悖于林業(yè)界普遍認(rèn)同的觀念。有些研究者并沒有把她的科學(xué)成果當(dāng)回事，盡管這些成果發(fā)表在《自然》等同行評(píng)議的期刊上。1997年，《自然》根據(jù)她的研究創(chuàng)造了“樹聯(lián)網(wǎng)”一詞。

Simard describes her experiments in detail， making it possible for the reader to understand what she is doing， why， and how. Her most groundbreaking experiment was one in which she injected different carbon dioxide gases into the air around a birch and a fir seedling， then measured whether the carbon traveled between the trees. Her results showed that birch and fir communicate： It was “l(fā)ike intercepting a covert conversation over the airwaves3 that could change the course of history，” she writes.

西瑪?shù)略敿?xì)描述她的實(shí)驗(yàn)細(xì)節(jié)，讓讀者能夠理解她在做什么，為什么這么做，以及如何做的。她最具創(chuàng)造性的實(shí)驗(yàn)是向一棵樺樹和一棵冷杉幼樹周圍的空氣中注入不同的二氧化碳?xì)怏w，然后判斷碳是否在樹木之間傳播。她的研究結(jié)果表明，樺樹和冷杉可以互相交流，就像“通過電波攔截了一段可以改變歷史進(jìn)程的秘密對(duì)話”，她寫道。

This communication happens through a network of dozens of fungi that connect the roots of the trees， and its a finding that Simard makes again and again in her experiments. Simard writes that our recognition that forests have “elements of intelligence” helps us leave behind old notions that they are inert， simple， linear， and predictable.

這種交流通過連接樹木根部的幾十種真菌網(wǎng)絡(luò)進(jìn)行，這是西瑪?shù)略谒娜舾蓪?shí)驗(yàn)中一次又一次發(fā)現(xiàn)的。西瑪?shù)聦懙溃覀冋J(rèn)識(shí)到森林具有“智慧因子”，這有助于我們摒棄那些認(rèn)為森林是惰性的、簡(jiǎn)單的、線性的、可預(yù)測(cè)的陳舊觀念。

While Simard cant hide her excitement about her experiments， she also weaves in stories about her personal life， including her relationship with her siblings， her marriage， and its dissolution， and her struggle with breast cancer. As she writes， “Our own roots and systems interlace and tangle， grow into and away from one another and back again in a million subtle moments.”

書中，西瑪?shù)聼o(wú)法掩飾她對(duì)實(shí)驗(yàn)的興奮，還穿插了一些關(guān)于她個(gè)人生活的故事，包括她與兄弟姐妹的關(guān)系、她的婚姻和婚姻的破裂，以及她與乳腺癌的抗?fàn)帯Ｕ缢鶎懙哪菢樱拔覀冏约旱母拖到y(tǒng)相互交錯(cuò)纏繞，在無(wú)數(shù)個(gè)微妙的時(shí)刻互相靠近、漸行漸遠(yuǎn)，然后又回到彼此身邊”。

She is currently focused on The Mother Tree projects， a study of the oldest conifers in nine forest stands and how they interact with seedlings around them， especially whether theyre kin or stranger seedlings. She notes that “The forest seemed like a system of centers and satellites， where the old trees were the biggest communication hubs and the smaller ones the less-busy nodes， with messages transmitting back and forth through the fungal links.”

目前，她專注于“母親樹”項(xiàng)目，研究9個(gè)林分中最古老的針葉樹，以及它們?nèi)绾闻c周圍的幼樹相互作用，特別是研究它們有無(wú)親緣關(guān)系。她指出，“森林就像一個(gè)由中心和衛(wèi)星組成的系統(tǒng)，其中老樹是最大的通信樞紐，較小的樹是不太繁忙的節(jié)點(diǎn)，它們通過真菌的連接來回傳輸信息”。

Simard is working to develop a new philosophy called “complexity science，” hoping to change forestry practices to prioritize the ecosystem over the timber supply. As Simard writes about the path forward： “By understanding [plants] sentient qualities， our empathy and love for trees， plants， and forests will naturally deepen and find innovative solutions. Turning to the intelligence of nature itself is the key.”

西瑪?shù)抡铝τ谘芯恳惶酌麨椤皬?fù)雜性科學(xué)”的新理論，希望能改變林業(yè)傳統(tǒng)，讓人們認(rèn)識(shí)到，生態(tài)系統(tǒng)比木材供應(yīng)重要。西瑪?shù)聦?duì)未來的方向是這樣寫的：“通過理解（植物的）感知特性，我們對(duì)樹木、植物和森林的同理心和愛自然會(huì)加深，并找到創(chuàng)新的解決方案。訴諸自然本身的智慧是關(guān)鍵。”

（譯者為“《英語(yǔ)世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎(jiǎng)?wù)撸?/p>