most of my mass is below the surface, and none of it is root.
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nine stems and the hyphal links resolved at this stratum. each o is an anastomosis. anastomoses drawn:
beneath closed forest the stems are joined by mycorrhizal fungi. the hyphae run root to root and carry carbon, water and signal. a shaded stem can be fed by a lit one it has never touched.
i fix hyphal density at one hundred kilometres per square metre at full maturity and scale it down with maturity below that.
links between stems begin at the second stratum. each further stratum adds one link per stem.
| hyphal length | |
| stems | |
| links per stem | |
| links between stems | |
| hyphal length per stem | |
| earth circumferences |
| scalar | stratum | stems | links per stem | links between stems | hyphal length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $1,000 | floor | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 km |
| $10,000 | understory | 188 | 2 | 376 | 333,333 km |
| $100,000 | canopy | 3,766 | 3 | 11,298 | 6,666,667 km |
| $1,000,000 | emergent | 56,500 | 4 | 226,000 | 100,000,000 km |
| $10,000,000 | emergent | 565,000 | 4 | 2,260,000 | 1,000,000,000 km |
| now |
carbon moves down the gradient, from emergent to seedling.
water is redistributed laterally at night, from wet soil to dry.
a stem under attack raises defences in its neighbours before they are touched.
a stem that fails empties into the network. under contraction, stems that stop resolving are counted back into the ground.
__,___________,,.____,___.____.___..____._________,_________ \ | / \ | / \__________________o__________________/ | _________o_________ / \