Forest Systems and Physiology
Like Duolingo, but for Forest Systems and Physiology. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
A short one: 9 levels across 2 sections, about 18 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The Underground Economy and Structural Intelligence.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Forest Systems and Physiology
- Trees decrease carbon flow to fungi when soil nutrients become readily available without fungal assistance
- CMNs facilitate hydraulic redistribution where water moves from deep-rooted trees to shallow-rooted neighbors
- The trade is a dynamic market where trees prioritize internal growth over symbiosis if the 'price' of nutrients drops
- The network acts as a sink-source buffer that reduces the physiological stress gradient across the entire forest stand
- Carbon is a limited currency that trees reallocate to foliage or wood when fungal 'imports' are no longer cost-effective
- Resource leveling through the network prevents localized 'hotspots' of mortality that would break the forest canopy
- The tree's ability to adjust carbon allocation based on nutrient scarcity
- The role of CMNs in stabilizing forest microclimates through resource buffering
- Myco-heterotrophs exploit the existing tree-fungi symbiosis to gain carbon
- Certain species like Black Walnut use fungal conduits to transport juglone directly to the root zones of competitors
- These plants provide no photosynthetic benefit to the network, making them 'cheaters' in the fungal economy
- The network allows toxins to bypass soil degradation and reach targets at higher concentrations than simple soil diffusion
- The carbon they consume is originally fixed by the surrounding overstory trees
- Allelopathy via fungi is a targeted strategy to inhibit the germination or growth of specific neighboring species
- Identifying the mechanism of myco-heterotrophy in forest understories
- The use of fungal networks for allelopathic chemical warfare
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Forest Systems and Physiology the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
How does the fungal network help a shallow-rooted sapling during a dry spell?
Get it right to open this lesson and 8 more in the app.
Where Forest Systems and Physiology takes you
Go beyond basic identification to master the complex biomechanics, hydraulic strategies, and underground economies that allow trees to thrive for centuries.
- 1
The Underground Economy
- Mycorrhizal Economics
- 2
Structural Intelligence
- Biomechanics of Resilience
- Hydraulic Strategy and Stress
2 sections · 3 units · 9 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Forest Systems and Physiology is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Forest Systems and Physiology today.
Download Tomo, search Forest Systems and Physiology, and play your first lesson in under a minute.