Radioactive tags have been used by scientists to uncover an environmental market where plants and fungi trade energy.
The study looked at the interactions between the plant Medicago truncatula and the fungis Glomus intraradices, Glomus custos, and Glomus aggregatum.
Scientists not only found that there was an exchange of energy, but there was a higher rate of exchange for plants and fungi that were more cooperative.
“This is one of the first recorded examples of a ‘biological market’ operating in which both partners reward fair trading rather than one partner having the advantage and exploiting the other,” said Professor Stuart West of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology,
Read more at University of Oxford