Read the following passage carefully.
Recent studies of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungal networks in temperate forests have fundamentally challenged the traditional model of inter-tree competition. In the classic paradigm, sympatric trees of different species compete in a strictly zero-sum manner for available soil resources and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). However, isotopic labeling experiments utilizing carbon-13 and carbon-14 have demonstrated substantial, bidirectional carbon transfer between ecologically disparate species, such as the evergreen Douglas fir and the deciduous paper birch, mediated entirely by shared underground ECM networks.
Crucially, the net direction of this carbon flux is temporally dynamic, governed by source-sink relationships contingent on phenological stages and shifting overstory shading. During the summer, the broad-leaved paper birch maintains a dense foliar canopy and a correspondingly high photosynthetic rate. It acts as a net carbon source, transferring assimilates through the ECM network to shaded, understory Douglas fir saplings, which act as sinks. Conversely, in the early spring and late autumn, after the birch has shed its leaves and become metabolically dormant, the evergreen Douglas fir—which continues to photosynthesize under the now-open canopy—reverses the flux, serving as a net carbon donor to the birch.
Some ecologists have interpreted this dynamic bidirectional exchange as evidence of forest-level altruism, positing a super-organismal mutualism wherein the network functions to buffer the entire woodland ecosystem against localized deficits. However, a more mathematically rigorous evolutionary perspective suggests that the ECM fungi themselves are the principal drivers and primary beneficiaries of this transfer. By functioning as an active broker between different tree species with asynchronous periods of peak productivity, the fungal network ensures its own steady supply of carbohydrates year-round. In this view, the apparent cooperative carbon sharing between competing trees is merely an epiphenomenon of the fungus optimizing its resource acquisition; the fungus allocates carbon to whichever host is currently operating at a deficit to maintain the viability of a diverse host portfolio, thereby insulating itself against host-specific environmental stress.
Based on the specific details in the passage, determine whether the following statement is true or false:
It can be inferred that under the mathematically rigorous evolutionary perspective, an ectomycorrhizal network connecting sympatric trees that share identical phenological cycles of productivity and dormancy would be less capable of insulating the fungi against environmental stress than a network connecting ecologically disparate species.
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