Week 2 Briefing: Trade agreements
Reading the plant-fungus carbon-for-nutrient exchange as a negotiated rate rather than a fixed act of generosity.
Rajarshi Rit · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Case file 02
Case file 02- Date
- 1 March 2027
- Metaphor
- Trade agreements — negotiated exchange with terms both sides can enforce
- Phenomenon
- Carbon-for-nutrient exchange in mycorrhizal mutualism, and biological market theory's account of how the exchange rate is set
Before the session#
Read the assigned account of isotope-labelling experiments that trace carbon one way and phosphorus the other. Come with an opinion on whether “exchange rate” is doing honest work or borrowed prestige.
In the session#
Treat the plant-fungus exchange as a rate that moves, not a fixed gift. What changes the rate on each side? What would have to be true for one partner to be described as getting a bad deal?
Afterwards#
The vocabulary from this week — rate, reward, partner, market — recurs constantly for the rest of semester. Note where it starts to strain.
The spec
What you bring to the session. Written so a reader can tell whether it has been met without asking you.
- you can state what each partner in an AM or ECM association gives and gets, in the form "X for Y"
- you can describe one experimental method used to measure that exchange
Teaching team
- Tobias Lindqvist — tutor