Green Group discussion

Here is a research paper on how tree monocrop and rotational harvesting can harm biodiversity, looking at Sweden in particular.

https://link.springer.com/article/10....

Recreating a forest around Glasgow, even if that means street trees. Thank you BBC for this one.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-...

"An urban forest, consisting of 18 million trees, is to be planted in and around Glasgow over the next 10 years.

The Clyde Climate Forest will be part of the city region's commitment to reaching Net Zero.

It will increase woodland cover in the area from 17% to 20%.

Inter-connected woodlands will be created across Glasgow, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, and North and South Lanarkshire council areas.

The number of trees being planted is equivalent to 10 trees per resident."

How to tell how long a forest has been without change. Soil samples, charcoal and plant remnants.

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-forest-...

More information: Dolores R. Piperno el al., "A 5,000-year vegetation and fire history for tierra firme forests in the Medio Putumayo-Algodón watersheds, northeastern Peru," PNAS (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.202...
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by Field Museum

https://www.makeuseof.com/best-apps-f...

Make Use Of show us five phone apps specifically for identifying trees. Some are only for iPhone and some cost money, other work on Android and are free.

"RDS Spring Agriculture & Forestry Awards
Closing date for entries: August 10

The 2021 RDS Spring Agriculture RDS Forestry Awards are now open for entries. With a prize fund of €24,000 the awards recognise the very best farmers, foresters, innovators and agri-entrepreneurs in Ireland.

There are three categories in the Forestry Awards section that recognise the economic, environmental and social benefits of good forestry and farming. Everyone with woodland is encouraged to enter as all woodlands, large or small, are of merit. More information is available here.

The RDS Sustainable Agriculture Awards have been expanded for 2021 to include new categories for agri start-ups and social impact. The closing date for entries in both sections is August 10. Application forms can be downloaded from the RDS website here. Alternatively, you can request forms by emailing [email protected]
Details of the 2020 RDS Sustainable Agriculture Award winners can be found on the RDS YouTube Channel."

"By comparing the DNA of living gymnosperms, the researchers were able to peer back in time, uncovering evidence for multiple ancient genome duplication events that coincided with the origin of major groups.

Gymnosperms have undergone significant extinctions throughout their long history, making it difficult to decipher the exact nature of their relationships. But the genomes of all living gymnosperms share the signature of an ancient duplication in the distant past, more than 350 million years ago. More than 100 million years later, another duplication gave rise to the pine family, while a third led to the origin of podocarps, a group containing mostly trees and shrubs that today are primarily restricted to the Southern Hemisphere.

In each case, analyses revealed a strong link between duplicated DNA and the evolution of unique traits. While future studies are needed to determine exactly which traits arose due to polyploidy, possible candidates include the strange egglike roots of cycads that harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria and the diverse cone structures found across modern conifers. Podocarp cones, for example, are highly modified and look deceptively like fruit, said Stull: "Their cones are very fleshy, have various colors and are dispersed by different animals.""

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-scienti...

More information: Gregory W. Stull et al, Gene duplications and phylogenomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms, Nature Plants (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41477-021-00964-4
Journal information: Nature Plants
Provided by Florida Museum of Natural History

Heat and drought alone are not only killing more trees than expected, they prevent seedlings and saplings from growing into replacements.

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-extreme...

More information: Robert A. Andrus et al, Increasing rates of subalpine tree mortality linked to warmer and drier summers, Journal of Ecology (2021). DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.13634
Journal information: Journal of Ecology
Provided by University of Colorado at Boulder

"In a research article published in Scientific Reports, University of Delaware researchers investigated the pressures of urbanization on SMC associated with specific tree species. The research team included UD faculty member Tara Trammell and former postdoctoral research fellow Carl Rosier.

The research team compared urban, suburban and rural areas. They selected American beech and yellow poplar trees due to canopy and bark differences, but also because of their dominance in both urban and rural forests.

To characterize the soil microbes beneath specific trees, Trammell and Rosier used next generation high throughput sequencing. This technique enabled the researchers to simultaneously sequence millions of DNA molecules allowing specific identification of hundreds of bacterial species. In tandem with this approach, the research team also investigated soil carbon, nitrogen, metal concentrations and pH that comprise the soil under each tree species across all sampled forests. The team's findings suggest urban pressure alters specific soil characteristics, overriding the tree's capacity to maintain a unique SMC."

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-ability...

More information: Carl L. Rosier et al, Urbanization pressures alter tree rhizosphere microbiomes, Scientific Reports (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-88839-8
Journal information: Scientific Reports
Provided by University of Delaware

https://phys.org/news/2021-06-compost...

"Farmers are becoming more aware of the environmental impacts of different orchard management practices.

"Apple growers are interested in developing more sustainable nutrient management plans," explains Peck. "They are asking for more information to improve the soil health on their farms."

A healthy soil depends on many factors. One of those factors is the microbial community living in the soil. The community is made up of bacteria, nematodes, and fungi. Some of these microbes convert nutrients in the soil into forms that apple trees can use.

In the soil, microbes and plant roots interact in beneficial partnerships. Plants, like apple trees, release fluids from their roots into the soil. These fluids serve as a food source for the microbial community. In return, the microbes can help the apple trees.

"Bacteria serve many functions in an apple orchard soil," says Peck. "They recycle nutrients, promote plant growth, and even alter plant metabolisms.""

More information: Hazem Sharaf et al, Compost applications increase bacterial community diversity in the apple rhizosphere, Soil Science Society of America Journal (2021). DOI: 10.1002/saj2.20251
Journal information: Soil Science Society of America Journal
Provided by American Society of Agronomy

Trinity College, Dublin, has five PhD researcher posts available. Each explores different purposes for forestry in the future, for instance, alongside renewable power farms.

https://campusbuzz.blog/2021/08/02/fo...

"An exciting new multi-disciplinary project is seeking to recruit 5 new PhD students. Students will work as a team to examine native woodland afforestation, which has become perceived as a key strategy to address climate and biodiversity challenges, and is attracting investment from public and private actors. However, the ecological, social, and financial risks of this are not always well considered. This project, FOREST, will use the increase in forestry in Ireland as a model system to explore the challenges associated with addressing climate and biodiversity issues, and examine potential solutions from a multi-disciplinary perspective. The aim is to develop socially just, ecologically sound and economically viable options.

PhD 1: Climate justice through restorative development – primary supervisor Professor Murphy (Geography), co-supervisor Professor Denny (Economics). To explore the opportunities and barriers to community participation, social recognition, and fair distribution of the social, economic and ecological costs and co-benefits of offsetting through afforestation in Ireland."

New research paper on dendrochronology.

"We present the longest tree-ring chronology to date in northeastern North America (2233 years; 227 BCE – 2005 CE), resulting from several research projects conducted at the subarctic treeline in northern Quebec. This raw chronology of tree-ring width includes 464 black spruce (Picea mariana (Mill.) B.S.P.) shrubs (krummholz) growing in wetlands and preserved within peatlands.

An indexed series of 152 erect black spruce trees that have lived in wetlands is also presented, covering the period 216 BCE to 1619 CE. We compared these chronologies to a tree-ring series including 116 black spruce trees and krummholz having grown on well-drained lichen woodlands over the period 1304–2000 CE. These chronologies highlight the major climatic periods of the last two millennia.

Floating chronologies dating from 2500 to 3500 years ago were also developed from trees preserved in frozen peat. Growth rings from this period are much wider than those of the last 2233 years, suggesting warm climatic conditions and permafrost-free peatlands during the transition from mid- to late Holocene.

The three subarctic chronologies presented here underscore the relevance and usefulness of tree growth rings and growth forms as ecological tools to assess the influence of climate on subarctic ecosystems."

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/...

Trees cause clouds.

""The main thing is that nobody has known whether planting trees at midlatitudes is good or bad because of the albedo problem," said corresponding author Amilcare Porporato, Princeton's Thomas J. Wu '94 Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the High Meadows Environmental Institute. "We show that if one considers that clouds tend to form more frequently over forested areas, then planting trees over large areas is advantageous and should be done for climate purposes."

As anyone who has felt a cloud pass over the sun on a hot day knows, daytime clouds have a cooling—albeit transient—effect on the Earth. In addition to directly blocking the sun, clouds have a high albedo, similar to ice and snow. Clouds, however, are notoriously difficult to study and have been largely discounted from many studies examining the effectiveness of natural climate change mitigation, including reforestation, Porporato said."

https://phys.org/news/2021-08-forests...

Clare wrote: "This article and video clip are about small albino redwood trees.

http://www.care2.com/causes/unravelin...


Care2 has removed that article so here is a post from Linked In during 2021.

Dan Wyatt:
On Wednesday i was assessing a forest stand with my fellow arborists. my colleagues brought to my attention the albino Redwood. My friends explained to me that a researcher by the name of Zane Moore of UC Davis has explained this phenomenon. the albino epicormic shoots have a symbiotic relationship with the surrounding shoots and the tree. the albino shoots cannot produce photosynthesis and need the support of the tree. the albino shoots act as a depository for heavy metals. I take no credit for the find or the research. I just want to share this with my fellow arborists. Im open to comments on this. I have never seen this before.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/dan-wy...

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-aspen-f...

"a new decade-long study by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers reveals how aspen stands change their genetic structure over the years as trees balance defending themselves from pests with growth to compete for sunlight. Aspen is the most broadly distributed tree species in North America, and a bellwether species for how forests will adapt to an onslaught of human-influenced environmental changes.

When faced with stiff competition, trees genetically predisposed to prioritize growth win out. But the survivors are less equipped to handle damaging insects.

The experiment demonstrates how evolutionary forces can quickly shape entire forest stands. It also suggests that exposure to a litany of environmental changes can maintain diverse forests capable of responding to different stresses."

Methods and results in the article and you can also chase up the research paper.

More information: Growth–defense trade-offs shape population genetic composition in an iconic forest tree species, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2103162118
Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison

""It's taken 100 years to come from this anecdotal evidence—oh wow, tree roots can actually go that deep—to understanding that this is probably, in many places, an important part of defining ecosystem dynamics," she said.

In addition to demonstrating that trees commonly tap roots into bedrock water stores, the study shows that trees are moving large volumes of water. In California alone, the amount of bedrock water taken up by forests each year exceeds the capacity of all of the state's human-made reservoirs.

In addition to providing a cross-country view, the study presents data from individual field sites in Central Texas and California showing that rock moisture can outdo soil as a water source. For example, at six sites in California and two in Central Texas, more than 50% of water released by trees came from rock moisture. At most of these sites, the rocks held significantly more water than soil did—up to 10 times as much.

Although it's clear that rock moisture plays a critical role in sustaining forests, McCormick said that much more research is needed to know how and when trees access water locked away in rocks.

"We have much left to explore," she said. "We have tools for investigating and describing soil processes, but we need data and experiments to tell us how to treat bedrock.""

https://phys.org/news/2021-09-bedrock...

More information: Evidence for widespread woody plant use of water stored in bedrock, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03761-3 , www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03...
Journal information: Nature
Provided by University of Texas at Austin

Gods Live In The Trees
Before people started clearing all lands of trees, in the way they were
Six trillion trees, there were, before they were declared a nuisance
Shaded a great deal of Earth, kept lands cool, the dirt and rivers in place

Protected forests did exist, Pagans believed that Gods, lived in the woods
Not a good idea to fool mighty Mother Nature, nor the gods living in trees
So it was thought, but a funny thing happened on the way to the forum
Monotone godders rolling along, spreading words of freedom far and wide

Word was, there was only one god, who lived everywhere and nowhere
Certainly not in lowly trees, so the treasured forests, lost their guardian angels
Don't be afraid of spurious superstitions, cut them all down, take it all home
Empty forest lands yield great rewards, crops, buildings, cash overflowing

Now three trillion trees, half the natural world's roofs gone, the ice all melting
Time to put all those riches, experiences, to good use, replenishing great forests
Only thing that will ever work, is to put all the trees back, they are the future

Thank you!

For awhile it was paper or plastic bags, now the choice is plastic or wood.

Exporting raw plastic waste to other countries as a means of recycling.

"If we add prep work, they need to pay us more,"
That is the whole plastic problem in the first place. Cleaning up the used plastic so it can go to the next proper step is the true cost of using the plastic in the first place. It is a cost that shouldn't be pushed forward to the country receiving the plastic waste, as it is a penalty, not a reward. We could look at it as being the same thing as the way we are supposed to clean our recyclable waste before we put it in the recycle bin.

Plastic or wood?

The flip side that no one talks about is the fact that the use of plastic replaced many items formerly made of wood. Plastic is increasingly being used in place of wood in the building industry. Even the glue used in composite wood products is plastic.

To have made everything out of wood that has been made out of plastic would mean that there would be far fewer trees today, or far fewer natural forests, or that a lot of the forest land would be mono tree plantations.

Substituting plastic for wood was an opportunity to modify the shrinking tree population. Trees could have been grown either in artificial forests or on plantations, or best of all choices, as natural biodiverse woodlands.

The removal of half the tree population probably took tens of thousands of years, or maybe less to accomplish. It was such a natural, long running, made sense at the time type of activity, and generated trillions or more in profits. Maybe using wood for everything was even the beginning of the backbone of human civilization, much the same as the digital age is the modern backbone of civilization.

Perhaps we would have been better off expanding the use the of the natural fillers that were used to fill the cracks between the pieces of wood in wooden buildings, into replacing the wood itself.

Removing 3 trillion trees was a full time occupation that ran 24/7 for a couple of thousand generations. This might be one of the biggest changes to the planet that can be tied directly to human activity. Losing half the tree population might have had a bigger impact than greenhouse gas. The trees are tied into so many processes that run on this planet that it might be impossible to accurately model the situation. I would suspect modeling greenhouses gasses is a lot easier than modeling such a massive event of the decline of trees.

Climate wise, the loss of 3 trillion years might indicate an advancing ice age which would definitely reduce tree populations, or an extensive long lasting drought, which would also reduce tree populations. The deliberate removal of trees by an animal on the planet might be confused with the actions of diseases. The fact that the trees were used for other purposes that changed the gas compositions of the hydrosphere might produce readable signals that the natural world could respond to.

An additional 3 trillion trees shading the planet's surface and 3 trillion tree's worth of leaves and branches and roots in the ground would have a profound impact on surface temperature, gasses in the hydrosphere, as well as wind and cloud production. Not to mention the biodiversity it would have protected.

The microbe world has been very hospital to macro life. Micro life excretes a lot of material, the overwhelming percentage of it is beneficial and nourishing. The total bulk mass of the microbes is a machine that uses and produces energy to process raw materials the same way a man made machine does. The macro world is entirely dependent on the micro world, while the micro world is entirely independent of the macro world. While astronauts seem to be living independently of the micro world and the natural world, in reality, the micro world and the natural world exist inside the astronauts bodies and make their individual lives possible.

It might be possible that a really profound negative change in the macro world might create changes in the micro world which might produce profound negative changes as far as the macro world is concerned, in the excretions that the microworld produces, which could impact the macro world in a negative manner.

We look at animal populations as being canaries in cages, a sort of early warning system. Apparently this format takes an infinite number of warnings before the message comes across clearly. Perhaps half the tree population disappearing is too obvious a warning as well.

People have not been all that good at looking to the really long term. Now we are living in the long term results.

This animated TED film shows how trees benefit cities and city dwellers. From absorbing rainwater and creating shade to helping ill people recover more quickly, trees are an asset.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zarll...

https://phys.org/news/2021-11-trees-s...

"A team of researchers with the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, has found evidence that indicates that stands of trees can reduce land surface area temperatures in cities up to 12°C.
...

"Prior research has suggested that adding green spaces to cities can help reduce high air temperatures during the warm months—cities are typically hotter than surrounding areas due to the huge expanses of asphalt and cement that absorb heat. In this new effort, the researchers looked at possible temperature impacts on land surface areas instead of air temperatures. Such temperatures are not felt as keenly as air temperatures by people in the vicinity because it is below their feet rather than surrounding them.

The work by the team involved analyzing data from satellites equipped with land surface temperature sensors. In all, the researchers poured over data from 293 cities across Europe, comparing land surface temperatures in parts of cities that were covered with trees with similar nearby urban areas that were not covered with trees. For comparison purposes, they did the same for rural settings covered in pastures and farmland.

They found urban areas with trees typically had land surface temperatures that were two to four times cooler than similar areas nearby that had no tree cover. Such differences translated to approximately 0 to 4 K lower than surrounding areas in parts of Southern Europe—in other regions, such as Central Europe, the differences were as high as 8 to 12 K. "

More information: Jonas Schwaab et al, The role of urban trees in reducing land surface temperatures in European cities, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26768-w
Journal information: Nature Communications

In response to the problem of how putting solar farms on undeveloped property is not a good use of undeveloped property, the Yale School of The Environment has come up with the idea of shading parking lots with solar farms.

It could tie in with the problem of how long it takes the missing 3 trillion trees to grow to start shading the Earth again the way they use to.

I would go further than just partially covering overhead open areas as pictured. While low to the ground construction is cheaper and perhaps cooler, in some areas it might be useful to elevate the parking area so it would be less prone to flooding.

That leaves the undeveloped property available for more bio diverse applications which does not include building on those sites, could even include creating forests on the large areas they take up.

The shading of the large parking areas lowers the surrounding temperature similar to how trees would. The shade structure would produce power. Some of the shading surface areas could have plants and trees growing on or around them.

Careful planning would be required in choosing which plants or trees would work and which wouldn't with the idea of maintaining the plants requiring extra work and cost versus just erecting a partial shading structure. The partial shading structure by itself would have minimal costs.

Open space parking is probably the cheapest solution to building a parking lot. The builder's savings are insignificant to the environmental costs the parking lots create.

https://e360.yale.edu/features/puttin...

Highly interesting!
If solar panels are tilted to catch the sun, they will shed water at some time, and that could be caught to irrigate plants at the end of the row.
Panels need to be cleaned. This means they have to be accessed safely.
Panels can be automated to tilt to follow the sun, but then the movement uses up some of their power.

Trees and other plants are shown to be taking up more CO2 now more is available - but this can't be enough to stop climate change.

https://phys.org/news/2021-12-climate...

"So Keenan and his team of researchers took a new approach: they looked back at nearly three decades of carbon sink estimates made by the Global Carbon Project. They compared these with predictions from satellite images of the Earth taken between 1982 and 2012 and models using carbon exchange between the atmosphere and land to make carbon sink estimates.

"Our estimate of a 12% increase comes right in the middle of the other estimates," he said. "And in the process of generating our estimate, it allowed us to re-examine the other estimates and understand why they were overly large or small. That gave us confidence in our results."

While this study highlights the importance of protecting ecosystems that are currently helping slow down the rate of climate change, Keenan notes that it's unclear how long forests will continue to perform this service.

"We don't know what the future will hold as far as how plants will continue to respond to increasing carbon dioxide," he said. "We expect it will saturate at some point, but we don't know when or to what degree. At that point land sinks will have a much lower capacity to offset our emissions. And land sinks are currently the only nature-based solution that we have in our toolkit to combat climate change.""

More information: Trevor Keenan, A constraint on historic growth in global photosynthesis due to rising CO2 (N&V), Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04096-9. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04...
Journal information: Nature
Provided by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Lychee trees.

""Lychee is an important tropical agricultural crop in the Sapindaceae (maple and horse chestnut) family, and it is one of the most economically significant fruit crops grown in eastern Asia, especially so to the yearly income of farmers in southern China," says Jianguo Li, Ph.D., professor in the South China Agricultural University (SCAU) College of Horticulture and a senior author of the study.
"By sequencing and analyzing wild and cultivated lychee varieties, we were able to trace the origin and domestication history of lychee. We demonstrated that extremely early- and late-maturing cultivars were derived from independent human domestication events in Yunnan and Hainan, respectively.""

https://phys.org/news/2022-01-lychee-...

More information: Victor Albert, Two divergent haplotypes from a highly heterozygous lychee genome suggest independent domestication events for early and late-maturing cultivars, Nature Genetics (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41588-021-00971-3. www.nature.com/articles/s41588-021-00...
Journal information: Nature Genetics
Provided by University at Buffalo

This study looks at the connection between forest and peatland, and how carbon storage is affected.

https://phys.org/news/2022-01-atmosph...

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-valuabl...

More peatland info.

https://phys.org/news/2021-07-peatlan...

Lockdown prompted some teenagers to become citizen scientists. They noticed that the Cecropia trees in Panama had a co-operation with ants.

"Despite significant movement restrictions during the first wave of the pandemic, they roamed their neighborhood drilling holes into Cecropia trees and documenting the ants' responses to the damage.

They found that as soon as the plants had holes drilled into them, the ants ran to the wound area and began patching it up. Within 2.5 hours, the size of the hole had been significantly reduced and it was often completely repaired within 24 hours."

https://phys.org/news/2022-01-acciden...

More information: Alex Wcislo et al, Azteca ants repair damage to their Cecropia host plants, Journal of Hymenoptera Research (2021). DOI: 10.3897/jhr.88.75855
Journal information: Journal of Hymenoptera Research
Provided by Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Lovely news from Ireland.

"'The Hare's Corner' project aims to help farmers and landowners 'make a little more space' for nature by creating pocket-sized habitats on their land.

Inspired by an old farming expression for an awkward section of a field which wasn't intensively farmed and so was 'left to nature’, 'The Hare's Corner' is co-ordinated by the Burrenbeo Trust, a local landscape charity.
....

"The mini woodlands feature native Irish pine, which once dominated the Burren landscape, but was thought to be extinct for over 1,500 years.

"Remarkably, scientists from Trinity College Dublin discovered a small population of it growing at a remote location in the Burren in 2016.

Seeds were collected under licence from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, nurtured and grown in individual pots for planting out."

https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0219/128...

Trees, in particular willow, have been used in this zero run-off wetland test which cleans wastewater. The idea is that contaminated water is piped in, the trees drink it and release moisture back to the air through evapotranspiration. Provided the setup is managed in advance of heavier than normal rainfall, for instance a holding tank, the contaminants are contained.

The tree roots can even neutralise some contaminants, especially if biochar is added.

https://techxplore.com/news/2022-02-p...

"Such "constructed wetlands" have long been used to treat wastewater, especially in Europe. What is innovative about Fredette and Brisson's work is that they have modeled a constructed wetland whose parameters can be adjusted to optimize the treatment of leachate, a mixture of rainwater and buried contaminants.

"The big question was how can we design a zero-liquid-discharge wetland when the quantity of water entering the system is unpredictable because it varies depending on rainfall," said Brisson. "In the end, the solution lies in the shape of the wetland, the choice of vegetation and installation of a temporary storage tank for the water."

While the model was developed for Montreal's climate, it can be adapted to any climate by choosing plants that have a high evapotranspiration rate and are suited to local conditions. "This green approach has enormous potential, especially since it is much cheaper than conventional wastewater treatment plants," Brisson pointed out."

More information: Chloé Frédette et al, Design of a zero liquid discharge leachate treatment system using an evapotranspiration willow bed, Water Research (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117950
Khalil Abas et al, Effects of plants and biochar on the performance of treatment wetlands for removal of the pesticide chlorantraniliprole from agricultural runoff, Ecological Engineering (2021). DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2021.106477

Journal information: Ecological Engineering
Provided by University of Montreal

Ash dieback disease is spreading in Ireland and I identified it in my locality last year.
This article tells us European countries have largely stopped planting ash, due to this disease.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2022...

A hidden ancient forest has survived in a Chinese karst (limestone pavement) sinkhole.

https://www.ecowatch.com/ancient-fore...

"At the bottom of a 630-foot sinkhole in China lies a green surprise: an ancient forest with trees stretching nearly 130 feet out of the depths.

The unusual sinkhole was first discovered by cave explorers in China’s southern Guangxi region, who alerted scientists to their find, according to The Guardian. After confirming the forest’s existence, researchers think it has even more secrets to reveal.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to know that there are species found in these caves that have never been reported or described by science until now,” expedition leader Chen Lixin said, as The Guardian reported. "

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

A nature based solution to adapting to climate change is to plant additional species.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business...

"We are in Mutrux, a small commune in canton Vaud, in western Switzerland. HereExternal link, six exotic tree species from Turkey, Bulgaria and the United States were planted on a plot of about three hectares in 2012. It’s an example of what is called “assisted migration”. “We accelerated a movement of species that would otherwise have taken at least thousands of years,” explains Brang, a researcher at the Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL). There is nothing unusual in his experiment. Humans, he adds, have been intervening for centuries to shape forests according to their needs.

The introduced species were selected for their high resistance to drought and heat waves. Brang wants to study their growth and ability to survive in this new environment. “We want to know which trees could replace the species important to Switzerland that are suffering from climate change,” he says. "

A new candidate for the world's oldest tree - this is in Chile. Mountain species grow more slowly.


https://www.ecowatch.com/worlds-oldes...

"The tree was likely 5,484 years old and had an 80 percent chance of being more than 5,000 years old, surpassing Methusala.

“It was astonishing,” Barichivich told Science.

The method also determined a range of ages, according to Live Science. The tree could not be older than 6,000 years or younger than 4,100 years old.

“Even if the tree was a very fast grower, for all that size, it cannot be younger than that,” Barichivich told Live Science.

Barichivich has presented his findings at conferences, but they have not been peer reviewed yet, according to National Geographic. So far, they have received mixed reactions from the scientific community. "

In other words, not confirmed.

Since a managed ancient woodland is like a wide open botanical gardens, I'm adding this tale to the botanical gardens thread too.

https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2022...

"An ancient woodland is set to open to the public for the first time in over 500 years under plans announced by a conservation charity.

The Woodland Trust is hoping to turn Mourne Park into a popular visitor attraction, having bought 156 hectares of the 212 hectare site last year.

It has launched a campaign to buy a further 46 hectares.

As part of the £5.2 million (€6m) campaign, the trust is planning to reinstate walking paths in woodland that has not offered public access since the 1500s.

Mourne Park is near Kilkeel in Co Down on the edge of the Mourne Mountains, an area of outstanding natural beauty.
...

"With some of the ancient woodland restoration we've already carried out, we've seen flora and fauna return, red squirrels nest in the tree canopy above and fields of bluebells have bloomed on the forest floor.

"We want to open Mourne Park up in a sensitive way to allow the public to enjoy it in all its glory."

"This year we've cleared another five hectares of rhododendron and laurel from this woodland, and we have more yet to do.

"The restoration work that we're doing is to clear the invasive species so that more light can reach the forest floor, so that plants like bluebell, wood anemone can survive, and also allow the trees to regenerate naturally. Without this restoration work, eventually this woodland would slowly die.

"We're uncovering views that haven't been seen for decades, and finding old pathways that have been enveloped by this invasive species for even longer."

https://www.rte.ie/news/2022/0603/130...

A gingko biloba tree survived the Hiroshima bombing. Seedlings have been planted and some are growing in Cork, Ireland.

"Researchers led by The Morton Arboretum and United States Botanic Garden (USBG) were thrilled to find a lone Quercus tardifolia (Q. tardifolia) tree standing about 30 feet tall, though it is in poor condition. First described in the 1930s, the last living specimen was believed to have perished in 2011.

"This work is crucial to preserve the biodiversity that Earth is so quickly losing," said Murphy Westwood, Ph.D., vice president of science and conservation at The Morton Arboretum. "If we ignore the decline of Q. tardifolia and other rare, endangered trees, we could see countless domino effects with the loss of other living entities in the ecosystems supported by those trees," she said."

https://phys.org/news/2022-07-redisco...

Global Conservation Consortium for Oak,

https://www.globalconservationconsort...

https://www.theguardian.com/environme...

"A conservation team has rediscovered a native magnolia tree in a forest in Haiti for the first time since it was lost to science in 1925.

Boasting pure white flowers and uniquely shaped leaves, the northern Haiti magnolia (Magnolia emarginata) was found originally in the forest of Morne Colombo, which has since been destroyed by deforestation. It was considered endangered and featured on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list of threatened species, and its discovery has sparked new hope for the potential rewilding of Haiti’s forests.

As a result of the rapid decline of forest space – only 1% of the country’s original forest remains – many native plants now only grow in inaccessible mountains or ravines. Suspecting that the magnolia could survive in elevated habitats, a team from the Haiti National Trust travelled to Massif du Nord, Haiti’s longest mountain range, in search of the elusive plant.

On the third day of the expedition, the team spotted one tree and took the first photos ever captured of the plant. They soon discovered 16 flowering trees in various stages of development, along with juvenile plants in the early phases of growth."

Stone fruits are being hybridised, giving rise to the pluot, plumcot, apriplum and more. Some are first generation crosses and some are second. For instance, the pluot is described as 75% plum and 25% apricot.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluot

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edib...

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/en...

https://www.specialtyproduce.com/prod...

Mangrove trees and carbon storage.

https://phys.org/news/2022-09-mexican...

"A UC Riverside and UC San Diego-led research team set out to understand how marine mangroves off the coast of La Paz, Mexico, absorb and release elements like nitrogen and carbon, processes called biogeochemical cycling.

As these processes are largely driven by microbes, the team also wanted to learn which bacteria and fungi are thriving there.

The team expected that carbon would be found in the layer of peat beneath the forest, but they did not expect that carbon to be 5,000 years old. This result, along with a description of the microbes they identified, is now published in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

"What's special about these mangrove sites isn't that they're the fastest at carbon storage, but that they have kept the carbon for so long," said Emma Aronson, UCR environmental microbiologist and senior co-author of the study. "It is orders of magnitude more carbon storage than most other ecosystems in the region.""

More information: MT Costa et al, Baja California Sur mangrove deep peat microbial communities cycle nitrogen but do not affect old carbon pool, Marine Ecology Progress Series (2022). DOI: 10.3354/meps14117
Journal information: Marine Ecology Progress Series
Provided by University of California - Riverside

Overgrazing and overusing a resource is imperiling an unusual tree.

https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.amppr...

"a strange, upside-down tree called the dragon’s blood (Dracaena cinnabari).
...

sit cross-legged eating a breakfast of tea, dates and a pancake-like bread called malawah smeared with soft white cheese and honey. Keabanni, who is in his mid-50s, is talking about the remarkable dragon’s blood tree that grows on the island’s mountains and high plateaux and nowhere else on Earth. “The dragon’s blood tree is the heart of Socotra,” he tells me in the Socotri language, as Salem translates.

When Keabanni was a child, his great-grandparents told stories of vast forests of dragon’s blood trees. Across the plateau, they said, there were so many trees that you could walk from the shade of one to the shade of another without the sun ever touching you. Like his parents and grandparents, they were nomadic pastoralists, moving from place to place to feed and water their cattle. “It was the Bedu lifestyle,” Keabanni says,
...

"Most trees draw water from the soil and up their roots to the leaves; dragon’s blood trees can also do the reverse, taking water from the air and passing it into the soil. Scientists suggest that the unique shape of the dragon’s blood tree is an adaptation to life in its arid environment, allowing the trees to capture moisture from the fog and clouds, a process called horizontal precipitation capture. Researchers estimate that each dragon’s blood tree can inject several times more water into the soil than the local environment captures as rainfall, providing a critical component of the island’s hydrological system.

“One dragon’s blood tree brings a huge amount of water into the system,” says Kay Van Damme, a European researcher at Ghent University in Belgium and Mendel University, who is also the chair of the UK-based volunteer group Friends of Socotra and has worked on the island since the late 1990s. “If you lose a tree, you also lose hundreds of litres of water each year that would otherwise go into the system,” he says."

I am currently reading
Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest


by
Suzanne Simard

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wil...

"Typically, estimates of biomass carbon stocks are derived from tree biomass, simply multiplied by 0.5 – the carbon fraction of the tree biomass (Matthews, 1993). Biomass is rarely directly measured at a large scale: instead, allometric size-to-mass models are used to calculate above-ground biomass (AGB) from more easily measurable properties of stem diameter, D, and sometimes tree height, H. The allometric models are calibrated from destructive measurements of AGB (harvesting and weighing) along with D and H. However, direct harvest measurements are difficult and expensive, potentially impossible in long-term plots and national parks and are therefore not regularly done, if at all. As a result, there is a heavy dependence on sparse datasets for generalization of large-scale AGB estimates (Vorster et al., 2020).
...

Taking the island of Great Britain as an example of the links between allometric models and national biomass carbon estimates, the total carbon in temperate forests (above-ground and below-ground living material of trees ≥7 cm D) in Great Britain is estimated to be 213 Mt C, of which 48.8% is stored in broadleaved trees (Forestry Commission, 2014a), with approximately 71.5 Mt C carbon in above-ground tree parts. However, these carbon stock estimates for many broadleaved tree species depend almost exclusively on a single calibration dataset generated in the 1960s by Bunce (1968), containing just over 200 destructively sampled trees across five different species (Acer pseudoplatanus, Fraxinus excelsior, Quercus spp., Tilia cordata and Betula spp.) felled at four localities (Meathop Wood, Roudsea Wood, Coniston, Force Forge) in the English Lake District. Even though sampling by Bunce was done across the full tree size range at those localities at the time, the dataset does not cover anywhere near the size range in other locations (Figure 1) nor does it reflect the present state of trees that have experienced over half a century of growth under changing climatic influences (Kirby et al., 2014). The models developed by Bunce using these regionally specific (and size-limited) calibration data, have been widely used across Great Britain and beyond (Supplementary Table S1), an approach that is widespread for reasons we discuss below. This includes at least 20 other studies, seven of which are outside the UK, none of which are in similar forests. Furthermore, a synthesis of 607 allometric biomass models used across Europe (Zianis et al., 2005) lists the Bunce allometric models as the only one available to derive above-ground woody biomass for the widespread and abundant tree species A. pseudoplatanus, Fraxinus excelsior and T. cordata.

Here we used terrestrial laser scanning (TLS, also terrestrial LiDAR) methods and three-dimensional (3D) analysis to derive tree volume (V) non-destructively and further convert this to AGB and carbon (Calders, Newnham et al., 2015) in order to assess the reliability of allometry-based estimates of biomass in a temperate forest. We then further test underlying assumptions in allometric models more generally to investigate and understand potential discrepancies in biomass estimates and the wider implications of this study using UK temperate forest AGB as an example. "


The types of tree referred to are sycamore, oak, ash, birch and lime. No conifers.

https://www.rte.ie/news/ulster/2023/0...

"A pensioner who has planted 20,000 trees on a plot of disused land has been hailed an environmental champion.

Retired electrical engineer Stewart Hood, 77, from Co Antrim, has transformed the stony grounds of his 22-acre site into an area rich in biodiversity.

Mr Hood secured support from Stormont's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) to undertake the major forestry project.

It took Daera workers around four months to plant the thousands of trees across the land, which is located off the Steeple Road near Antrim town.

Around 18 acres are now planted, with one area allocated to hardwoods such as beech and oak and the reminder for pines.

Mr Hood already owns a fully matured forest in nearby Randalstown, which he planted up around 30 years ago."

This is great for biodiversity and is leaving a mixed forest for the future.

Forestry management affects the frequency of damaging floods and landslides.

https://phys.org/news/2023-01-forest-...

"Even small floods caused landslides and stream channel changes during the first 15 years of road construction and logging, and amid ongoing logging in the early part of the time period between large flood events, she said.

"Big flooding in 1964-65, when harvesting was taking place, produced much larger geomorphic responses than the large flood of 1996, more than a decade after logging stopped," Segura said.

Landscape effects were negligible in 2011 for the third largest flood event on record, the researchers found; by that time clear-cut areas of the forest had been replanted and the new trees were 20 to 70 years old."

More information: Arianna C. Goodman et al, Seventy years of watershed response to floods and changing forestry practices in western Oregon, USA, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (2022). DOI: 10.1002/esp.5537

Provided by Oregon State University

Reforesting areas of Bavaria which were once spruce but killed by spruce beetle, and are subject to climate change. The silviculture experts are going back to the original varied forest.
Your browser may offer to translate.

https://www.br.de/nachrichten/bayern/...

""Natural regeneration" is about those trees that come up by themselves in the forest soil, germinated from the seeds of the old trees. Iris Schröppel did mainly have spruce trees, so they will rejuvenate here as well. Likewise, wind, birds and squirrels carry in seeds, expanding the range of tree species. Some seeds lie dormant in the soil as a silent reserve for many years.

Forester Carmen Hombach, chairwoman of the local forest owners' association Kulmbach-Stadtsteinach, lets her gaze wander over the area: Between the planted bird cherries and red oaks, elderberries, maples, rowan berries and birches are already peeking out of the ground here and there. Not "valuable" tree species, many forest owners may think, but at least they cover the bare area, preventing erosion, Hombach says. "You have to look closely at an area first - but when a naturally emerged island of trees has already begun to grow, regeneration often runs from there.""

Yew trees are being replanted in Spain.
https://www.costa-news.com/costa-blan...

"Yew know it makes sense
February 8, 2023052
A total of 30,000 European yew tree (Taxus baccata) saplings are being cultivated by the Valencia government ‘to improve the Mediterranean forests’.

Regional councillor for the ecological transition, Isaura Navarro said it was the largest initiative to date to widen the habit of this tree in the region.

It is an extremely long-living tree, with reports of some specimens of up to 5,000 years old."

Trees are being stolen for firewood, and stacked firewood is being stolen, from conservation forests and lands. The rise in thefts is linked to the rise in heating costs.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20...

The article sums up the way the entire natural world is harvested. he money covers a range that goes from excessive profits, everyday business, to economic survival for those who don't have enough. A lot of land and water is "burned up" to get the resources it holds. In some areas, wood burning stoves and fireplaces are luxury items not required for survival.

A new study in Ireland of the Sitka spruce.


https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2023/04...

"The team found that Sitka spruce was less challenged in its evolutionary history, being pushed onto North American islands to the fringes of its range during the Pleistocene ice age 18,000 years ago, when glaciers spread throughout North America. These fringe ranges served as refuge, which, once the ice sheets began to retreat, represented a seed source to recolonise the mainland. Recolonisation started from the islands in Alaska and from Haida Gwaii in British Columbia, Canada.
...

"These habitats receive between four-and-a-half to eleven hours of sunlight per day and such diversity in habitats leads to adaption. Trees are likely to adapt to their local environment slowly, a process that can often take millennia to complete.

The team found that the 50th latitude was a key divide in the northern and southern ranges occurring a long the US-Canadian border. At this point north wards trees are more adapted for inclement weather with increased tolerance to colder conditions and snow fall and have lower height growth. South of this point trees are more adapted to positive growing conditions associated with more temperate climates, with adaptations for increased solar radiation, reduced rainfall and trees grow taller."

How to Read a Tree: Clues and Patterns from Bark to Leaves



Tristan Gooley