NEW AVENUES FOR UNDERSTANDING PROCESSES OF TREE DECAY

Summary The interrelationships between trees, and the fungi that inhabit and decay their xylem, are dynamic, complex and difficult to analyse into simple sequences of cause and effect. This is because both participants function, and interact, as highly versatile, open-ended or “indeterminate” hydrodynamic (“self-plumbing”) systems. As such they are capable of varying their pattern of development to accord with environmental circumstances by means of local feedback processes that lead to the opening up or sealing off of internal and external boundaries. Boundary-sealing, or “insulating” processes involve metabolic pathways that in leading to the production of water-resistant compounds and cell death would be detrimental within organisms with determinate development (e.g. many animals). However, they enable trees and fungi to switch functional modes, to conserve and redistribute resources, and to protect and repair their communication channels. The primary circumstance in trees that creates the opportunitie...