I’m afraid I may have derailed @Richard 's thread, but maybe it’s relevant in that things that can’t “talk” or run away have had to find other adaptations in order to survive.
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One way trees interact is natural root grafts. I don’t know if there is a benefit but it is one way to possibly pass a virus.
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I think if it were more harmful than beneficial, more trees would have evolved to not form them as easily. It seems to me that the main benefit of natural root grafts is it prevents roots of related plants from competing for any particular area of shared soil, and instead they can share the nutrients from each other’s roots. Also, a seedling in the shade of its mother tree can siphon sugars the tree produces up in the canopy as it awaits an opening from a tree fall.
But yeah, also can share any sap-borne illnesses. So both a positive and a negative.
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Looks like we need more rigorously controlled experiments across different CMN species-to-species specific interactions in many different environments. I think this starts in the lab though with radio labeled nutrients and seeing how these move through a plant/CMN system
The shotty science doesn’t surprise me in fields with fewer experts to lend critique.
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