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Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
Posts: 5,043
Loc: Perfidious Albion
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The Race to Save the World’s Biggest Trees
#23877275 - 11/29/16 05:20 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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http://www.seeker.com/extreme-climbers-climate-experts-race-to-save-the-worlds-biggest-trees-2105476183.html
Quote:
Extreme climbers and climate scientists work hundreds of feet in the air to study the effect of drought on sequoias.

For nearly two decades, Anthony Ambrose has been scaling trees to study them, but even this seasoned climber is awestruck by his view from the top of massive sequoias in the Giant Forest of western Sierra Nevada, Calif.
The biggest trees on Earth are in this forest, including the planet's single largest tree, General Sherman, which is 2,100 years old, weighs 2.7 million pounds, measures 100 feet wide at its trunk and towers 275 feet. General Sherman and the surrounding trees are considered to be among the ultimate survivors, yet they are showing worrisome signs of climate change-related stress.
Ambrose, a scientist from Berkeley, forest ecologist colleague Wendy Baxter and their team are on a mission to save these giants, and it sometimes means climbing to the very top of them. He summarized the experience in two words: "Absolutely amazing."
"You need to get up into the crowns of these tall trees in order to appreciate how large, complex and beautiful they are," Ambrose said. "You simply can't get the same perspective from the ground. Also, you get to see the other life forms high up in the canopy that you wouldn't otherwise be able to see on the ground, such as epiphytes (non-parasitic plants that grow on other plants), birds, spiders and ants. The views are incredible, both within the tree and surrounding canopy, as well as from the treetop."
They and other scientists, such as forest ecologist Nate Stephenson of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), were concerned about the trees following years of drought in California.
According to a story in the California Academy of Science's magazine, bioGraphic, Stephenson one day looked at the crown of a giant sequoia in the forest a few years ago and noticed that it was almost entirely brown, a scale of dieback that he had never witnessed before. When he found another tree showing similar distress lower to the ground, he touched one if its branches. The foliage crumbled off.
Stephenson said that in his three decades of studying these trees, he had only witnessed "two die on their feet." Now dozens appear to be "standing dead" after five years of brutal drought.
A program called Leaf to Landscape is studying the problem, bringing together UC Berkeley's Dawson Research Lab, where Ambrose and Baxter work, as well as the USGS, the National Park Service and the Carnegie Airborne Observatory.
Ambrose and Baxter are charged with collecting foliage samples, at different heights of the trees and at various times of day and night. It's a risky undertaking both for the climber and those nearby.
"Large trees are more difficult to climb, and have more hazards than small trees, such as large dead limbs, which may fall out of the tree while climbing it," Ambrose explained.
When such a limb falls from above, he screams, "Headache!" to alert his colleagues below.
The foliage samples are carefully brought down from the tree and are used to measure water pressure, which Ambrose likened to studying a person's blood pressure.
Giant sequoias can take in about 800 gallons of water a day, according to BioGraphic. As the trees pull water from the ground, the air surrounding their leaves draws water through the trees and eventually back into the atmosphere. The process, transpiration, creates tension within a given tree's water columns.
This means that the drier the atmosphere is, and the less groundwater that's available, the higher the tension will be. The water columns can even snap like a rubber band, causing gas bubbles and an embolism to form, preventing the flow of water up the tree's trunk.
 Photographer Lincoln Else ascends a fixed climbing rope to film scientists working within the giant sequoia trees.
The process can help the tree to preserve valuable water, but if it happens enough, the tree will continue to shed leaves and will eventually die.
"While there has been more rainfall this season so far, it has not been enough to really replenish the soil and ground water and California is still in a drought," Ambrose explained. "Our measurements indicate that the giant sequoias were doing a little bit better in June, but were experiencing a similar level of water stress in August 2016 as we measured in August 2015."
"Every little bit of rain and snow helps, though," he said, "and if we have a good wet winter they may recover more by next year."
The granddaddy of all trees, General Sherman, is among those being monitored. The General is "showing some signs of water stress, some brown foliage, but not too bad," Ambrose said.
Another aspect of the research involves flight surveys. Greg Asner, principal investigator at the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, flies a Dornier 228 airplane containing $12 million of custom-built equipment that permits measurement of the composition, chemistry and structure of this and other forests.
The data collected by Asner and the other scientists will be used by park officials to assess The Giant Forest trees' health and to inform management decisions. The latter may include controlled burns to remove less fire-resistant trees that compete for water with other, healthier ones.
Anyone can assist in the research effort, according to Scott Loarie, co-director of the California Academy of Science's iNaturalist platform. Loarie was previously a research fellow at the Carnegie Institute for Science and has expertise in tracking global biodiversity loss, including California's trees and plants.
"Climate change is one of the biggest threats facing giant sequoias," he told Seeker. "Citizen-scientists can use the free iNaturalist app to record observations of sequoia trees to help scientists understand how their distributions are changing. You can also help by recording other organisms that coexist with giant sequoias. This helps scientists understand how impacts on giant sequoias are cascading across the diverse ecosystems that they support."
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ferrel_human
stone eater



Registered: 06/26/09
Posts: 16,320
Loc: Texas
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Re: The Race to Save the World’s Biggest Trees [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
#23877357 - 11/29/16 06:29 AM (7 years, 2 months ago) |
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You cant help but feel sorry for them. Imagine a tree so huge and so old just up and dying like that. Its just terrible.
Thanks for the good read MH.
-------------------- Nature is my church and walking through it is gospel. It tells no lies and reveals all to those who look, and listen, closely. -Karode
 Looking for Mimosa tenuiflora seeds. Buttons for trade
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Mostly_Harmless
wyrd bið ful aræd



Registered: 05/12/09
Posts: 5,043
Loc: Perfidious Albion
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Re: The Race to Save the World’s Biggest Trees [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
#24000213 - 01/11/17 04:30 AM (7 years, 19 days ago) |
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http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/09/508919216/iconic-sequoia-tunnel-tree-brought-down-by-california-storm
Quote:
January 9, 2017
Iconic Sequoia 'Tunnel Tree' Brought Down By California Storm
 Until Sunday, visitors to Calaveras Big Trees State Park could walk through the tunnel in the Pioneer Cabin Tree.
A powerful winter storm in California has brought down an ancient tree, carved into a living tunnel more than a century ago.
The "Pioneer Cabin Tree," a sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, saw horses and cars pass through it over the years. More recently, only hikers were allowed to walk through the massive tree.
Over the weekend, a powerful winter storm slammed into California and Nevada, prompting flooding and mudslides in some regions. The Associated Press reports it might be the biggest storm to hit the region in more than a decade.
On Sunday, a volunteer at the state park reported that Pioneer Cabin had not survived.
"The storm was just too much for it," the Calaveras Big Tree Association wrote on Facebook.
It's unclear exactly how old the tree was, but The Los Angeles Times reports that the trees in the state park are estimated to be more than 1,000 years old. Sequoias can live for more than 3,000 years.
The iconic tree was one of just a few tunneled-through sequoias in California. The most famous was the Wawona Tree, in Yosemite National Park; it fell during a winter storm in 1969 at an estimated age of 2,100 years. The other remaining sequoia tunnels are dead or consist of logs on their side, the Forest Service says.
However, there are still three coastal redwoods (taller and more slender than sequoias) with tunnels cut through them. They're all operated by private companies, the Forest Service says, and still allow cars to drive through — one appeared in a recent Geico ad.
SFGate.com spoke to Jim Allday, the volunteer who reported Pioneer Cabin's demise. He told the website that the tree "shattered" when it hit the ground on Sunday afternoon, and that people had walked through it as recently as that morning.
 An 1899 stereograph shows the Pioneer Cabin sequoia in Calaveras Grove, Calif.
Local flooding might have been the reason the tree fell, SFGate reports:
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" 'When I went out there [Sunday afternoon], the trail was literally a river, the trail is washed out,' Allday said. 'I could see the tree on the ground, it looked like it was laying in a pond or lake with a river running through it.' "
"The tree had been among the most popular features of the state park since the late 1800s. The tunnel had graffiti dating to the 1800s, when visitors were encouraged to etch their names into the bark.
"Joan Allday, wife of Jim Allday and also a volunteer at the park, said the tree had been weakening and leaning severely to one side for several years.
" 'It was barely alive, there was one branch alive at the top,' she said. 'But it was very brittle and starting to lift.' "
Tunnel trees were created in the 19th century to promote parks and inspire tourism. But cutting a tunnel through a living sequoia, of course, damages the tree.
"Tunnel trees had their time and place in the early history of our national parks," the National Park Service has written. "But today sequoias which are standing healthy and whole are worth far more."
 The Pioneer Cabin sequoia in Northern California's Calaveras Big Trees State Park was carved into a tunnel in the late 19th century. It fell on Sunday, brought down by a massive storm.
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synthetik
biological entity

Registered: 12/15/16
Posts: 194
Last seen: 3 years, 10 months
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Re: The Race to Save the World’s Biggest Trees [Re: Mostly_Harmless]
#24000359 - 01/11/17 06:56 AM (7 years, 19 days ago) |
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I just drove through that last summer... beautiful part of the world their... lovely place to hit some trails with a belly full o fungus
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