Latest news with #Seil
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Science
- The Guardian
Magic mushrooms: how scientists discovered fungi are the secret ingredient for restoring the world's forests
Even in midsummer, the ancient hazelwoods on the Hebridean island of Seil are cool and quiet. Countless slanted stems of hazel support a thick canopy, which blots out the sun and blankets everything below in a sort of 'fairytale darkness', says Bethan Manley, a biologist at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. Moss and lichen coat branches threaded with honeysuckle, forming a great dome above you, adds David Satori, a researcher at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. This rich forest, on Scotland's Hebridean islands, is a remnant of one of Britain's oldest woodland environments. When the last ice age ended, the mile-thick glacier that had buried northern Europe melted away and hazelnuts sprouted across the rock left behind. Scientists can date when those forests sprang up across the west coast of Britain and Ireland, says Satori, because 'about 10,000 years ago, you have a massive spike in hazel pollen'. Scottish lichenologists have estimated these particular woodlands might have been around since 7,500BC. 'That's older than any pine forest [in the UK]. Older than any ancient oakwood that we have down south,' Satori says. 'One of the oldest woodlands in the British Isles.' Today, only a few tiny patches of old growth remain. Satori and Manley have come to this 49-hectare (121-acre) woodland reserve, the Ballachuan Hazelwood, to find the country's best example. From the outside, the bush-like stand appears so unremarkable that you could walk right past and miss it. Their target within the woodland is even less conspicuous, hinted at by dead branches that hang eerily from the trees and what Satori describes as 'stubby orange finger-like structures that grip hazel branches'. These ancient woods are home to peculiar fungi, including the glue crust fungus that sticks together hazel branches, and the parasitic 'hazel gloves' that grow out of them. Here, the researchers aim to understand how fungal communities could be key to regrowing Britain's lost hazelwoods, one part of a global mission to map the forgotten subterranean half of our planet's forests. In the last few years, Britain has tentatively begun to embrace its status as a nation of rainforests. Its woodlands, which spend much of the year blanketed in mist or rain, are a distinct form of temperate rainforest, one that survives only in western Scotland. After the success of Guy Shrubsole's bestselling The Lost Rainforests of Britain, the UK government announced plans to restore the nation's rainforests, which have dwindled to less than 1% of land in Great Britain. New research led by Leeds University shows the UK could play a globally significant role in reversing the decline of these rainforests. Temperate rainforests are a rare ecosystem that covers less than 1% of the Earth's land, restricted to cool, moist conditions that are easily affected by climate change. Planet-wide, about two-thirds of temperate rainforests could be lost as weather patterns shift, according to that research – with some nations, such as Austria, losing 90%. But the UK and Ireland have large expanses of unforested and rainy land, meaning these two countries have an opportunity to become 'global leaders in restoration and reforestation of temperate rainforest,' the authors write. Forests' ability to regrow, however, is strongly dependent on the communities of mycorrhizal fungi that grow symbiotically with roots, allowing the fungi and tree to exchange nutrients. Although mycorrhizal fungi have seen huge declines across Europe, being planted in native soil microbiome with healthy fungi can stimulate the growth of trees and other plants by 64%, research has shown. The first problem for hazelwood rainforests, as well as many rare forests across the planet, is that no one knows what this subterranean ecology involves, says Satori. 'Hardly anything has been done to understand these communities,' he says. About three-quarters of fungi are 'dark taxa' – species known only by their DNA sequence, as physical specimens have not been found. Over the next two years, Satori will be documenting soil fungi at Ballachuan and more than 20 other sites to establish the first ever map of mycorrhizal communities across Britain's temperate rainforest zones. Today, he is driving a metal coring device down into the soil around the hazel's roots. It pulls out root tips, to see what is associating with the hazel, while also sampling soil environmental DNA. This 'eDNA' can give a broad picture of the range of fungi that are down there, which play different roles in the ecosystem. Satori's work is supported by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (Spun), a research organisation founded in 2021 to analyse mycorrhizal fungal communities and advocate for their protection. The sampling work in Seil links Scotland's chill forests to similarly endangered, yet very different, rainforests in Colombia and Palmyra island, the Earth's most remote atoll. At each of the research sites, the below-ground microbiome – which the organisation calls the 'circulatory system of the planet' – is being probed to produce a global map, which was recently published in the journal Nature. In the richly biodiverse Magdalena River valley in Colombia, they are testing areas of rainforest cleared for cattle ranching, to see whether these fields still have similar fungal microbiomes as areas of untouched primary rainforest, or have flipped into new states. In areas now abandoned by farmers, Spun is monitoring to see if places that are rich in forest fungi naturally regrow better –and produce a map of the fungi-rich locations that may be best for replanting. The challenge in the UK is in some ways more extreme than Colombia, says Manley. While much of the Colombian farmland was cleared in recent decades, 'in some areas of Scotland you haven't had forests for maybe 1,000 years,' she says, potentially leaving trees with little fungal life to support them, making them more vulnerable to drought and other stresses. Across the British Isles, a number of efforts to restore rainforests are now under way. At Bowden Pillars, a 30-hectare 'rainforest creation' site in Totnes, the Devon Wildlife Trust (DWT) commissioned soil analysis to help to understand the impact of historical use of the site has had on the land, says Claire Inglis, nature reserve officer at DWT. Although volunteers have already planted more than 2,500 trees, the project aims first and foremost to design ways that seeds and fungi can spread naturally, as 'natural colonisation is always your most resilient option for future woodland,' says Inglis, adding that they were still only beginning to understand how to restore fungal communities. More hands-on measures have been considered by the DWT and the National Trust, which is restoring rainforest in north Devon. These include soil restoration by 'inoculation', either by adding scoops of soil from intact ecosystems when trees are planted or by transplanting fungal spores. Felicity Roos, a soil consultant at the National Trust, says: 'In the right circumstances, restoring degraded landscapes and soils, inoculants can play an important role in restoration.' Commercial biofertilisers claiming to contain mycorrhizal spores are now a business worth billions, but scientific studies have shown the majority of products contain dead or ineffective spores, with some also containing pathogens, or disease-causing micro-organisms. Such restoration projects underscore the importance of preserving remnants such as Ballachuan, and other reserves or fragments of rainforest around the world. These ancient patches act as 'refugia': reservoirs of fungi that can then act as a source to spread across the patchwork of different habitat types – farmland, developed land, semi-natural wild land – that surround it. Much of the UK's temperate rainforest is fragmented into these small pieces on land belonging to different farmers and estates. Satori says restoration will require reconnecting these across the whole landscape so as to have bridges that allow not just fungi but animals and insects to travel across the land. 'Having these interconnected landscapes is definitely going to be the best way to move forward,' he says. 'It's very much a long-term vision.'
Times
23-05-2025
- Times
Blowing the cover on Scotland's secret island escape
Ever found somewhere so peaceful that it feels wrong to tell others about it? The Isle of Luing is exactly that sort of place. Chances are you've never even heard of it. Less than three minutes from the Isle of Seil, on one of Scotland's shortest ferry crossings, the island isn't even as famous as its cows. A hardy, handsome breed now found across the world, Luing cattle were originally bred on this 5.5-square-mile dot in the Firth of Lorn. The island is owned by the Cadzow family, who started breeding cattle here in 1947. Nearly 80 years on, with the slate quarry closed, the primary school mothballed after Covid and the population down to fewer than 200, Jack Cadzow is trying to bring more people to the island. If anyone's to blame for letting the secret out of the bag, it's Jack. While living in Kenya, Jack and his wife, Emily, were inspired by the set-up at the country's safari lodges, where groups would gather for meals in a large communal space, then sleep in separate pods. Over the winter of 2022 the couple created WildLuing, an island escape comprising eight luxury self-catering pods and a communal lounge and dining room — all with wonderful panoramic views over Torsa Bay. They've since added a wooden sauna, which opened last month; a pontoon will open any day now. Each pod is slightly different: some have a rolltop bath positioned so you can look out over the bay; ours (named Losal) has a wooden shower bench where you can wash with a view of the hills and listen to the deep lowing of Luing cows passing by. A bag of firewood has been left at the back door and the fridge is full of home cooking, including Luing beef lasagne, local pheasant in tarragon sauce, and crumble made with Luing apples. I visit during a gap between WildLuing's programme of yoga retreats, whisky tastings and pop-up feasts, so my son and I have the entire place to ourselves. Wandering about with only the black 'woolly bear' caterpillars in the long grasses and an occasional swooping swallow for company, it feels as though that three-minute ferry ride has delivered us through a portal into another season. Having left Leith hanging under a cold grey haar, I'm now peeling off my mohair scarf in Luing's warm glow, stopping to gawp at sleepy blue dragonflies soaking up the afternoon rays. I tiptoe one minute down the hillside, carefully dodging cowpats as I go, sliding into the bay for a seaweedy dip while my son piles shards of slate and crab shells into a tower. Later, the sunset is one of those knockout west coast ones — the sky reminds me of a pale bottle of 1980s Anaïs Anaïs perfume, then peach clouds gather into a deep corally blaze and a vertical rainbow pokes through. Next morning I borrow binoculars and fixate on the bay. According to our visitors' book, others have seen porpoises and seals out there. On my second coffee I get lucky and watch an otter doing slippery corkscrews in our watery front garden. There's a patient heron too — he'll still be in the same spot when we return hours later from our island walk. And what a walk it is. We pass a hand-painted honesty box with fresh eggs, then another labelled 'Luing Locker', selling baby cucumbers, jars of chutney and plastic-wrapped tiffin. The walk to the village of Cullipool takes about forty minutes, past banks of purple hydrangea, neatly stacked slate walls and a petite post office — the island's only shop — selling local beers, smoked cheese and Luing lamb chops. At the Atlantic Islands visitor centre we discover an upstairs library lined with titles on the Slate Islands, puffin spotting and Hebridean poetry. We pore over digital maps of the seabed, showing the underwater mountains and ridges that create the famous Corryvreckan whirlpool, in the narrow strait between Jura and Scarba, just south of Luing. It's a treasure trove of rare treats and unexpected finds — a lot like this magical island itself. Claire Sawers was a guest at WildLuing (one night self-catering for two from £195,
