UnDisciplined: underground allies

Utah Public Radio | By Shoshannah Buxbaum

Published November 4, 2021 at 1:05 PM MDT

There's a lot more going on beneath the forest floor than you might realize. A vast underground network of fungi help some 95% of plants survive, helping them absorb nutrients and commnicate with other plants. New research shows that this fungi network might also be protecting the forest's biggest trees against pests and pathogens. Sara Germain is a PhD candidate in ecology at Utah State University in the Wildlife Resources Department. Her latest study was recently published in the journal Ecology.

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Shoshannah Buxbaum

Shoshannah Buxbaum is a multimedia journalist with a passion for telling narrative-driven stories about health, politics and culture. She's reported features, news spots and a half-hour special for Utah Public Radio. Before that she spent nearly six years at NJ PBS where she worked her way up from intern to producer. She’s a graduate from the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.

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