Eco ideas for eco-friendly people
FLORES, Guatemala (CNN) — In the rain forests of Central America grows the nutrient-rich Maya nut. The marble-sized seed can be prepared to taste like mashed potatoes, chocolate or coffee. To those who stumble upon the nuts on the ground, they’re free for the taking.
Continue reading →
The southern coast of Peru is one of the driest places on Earth. Why would anyone choose this parched location to re-plant a forest?
The strip of desert between the Andean mountains and the Pacific Ocean has an annual average rainfall as low as 1.5mm.
By way of comparison, London enjoys around 650mm a year.
It’s not an obvious place to choose if you’re looking for somewhere to plant trees, but for restoration ecologist Oliver Whaley the harsh environment of the northern fringes of the Atacama desert is part of the point.
By helping to restore the shrinking native forests, the aim is to benefit local people and wildlife, prevent soil erosion, and help alleviate climate change.
“If we can get trees established here, and learn how to do it with as little water as possible, then it is a model for the rest of the world,” he says.
While the plight of the world’s rainforests are well known, the same cannot be said of tropical dry forests. These less biodiverse, but equally remarkable forests, face threats every bit as severe as their better known cousins.
The Atacama dry forest “is really an ecosystem on its last legs,” says Mr Whaley, of London’s Kew Gardens - an internationally renowned botanical research institution.
The tree under threat is the huarango, Prosopis limensis, found only in the Ica region of Peru.
In this parched landscape, the hardy huarango is no stranger to thirst. Although rain seldom falls, it is able to capture moisture from other sources - trapping fog on its leaves, directing the water downwards towards its roots. The roots themselves are among the longest of any plant - 50m to 80m - and seek out underground water sources that flow from the Andes.
Burning bush
The huarango is also a valuable source of food and fuel, and a keystone of the local ecosystem. Whaley estimates that when he arrived in Peru, just 1% of the original local forest habitat remained - much of it consumed in charcoal production.
The problems facing dry forest habitat are not unique to Peru. Restoration expert James Aronson says, in general, these are more critically endangered than wet tropical forests, in respect of the total percentage already lost.
Mr Aronson, who heads the Restoration Ecology Group in the Centre for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier, France, adds there are more than 1,000 species of tree that grow in desert areas.
“In many desert areas of the world there used to be enough trees to constitute to a real canopy - not in the sense of an English forest, where the forest is everywhere you look - [in deserts] they were restricted to areas where there was sufficient water.”
With so little forest in existence (see map of original forest range ) conservation, on its own, would not be enough to preserve the trees, leaving restoration as the only option.
Hard times
It’s a situation made more complicated by the global recession.
Some local agro-industries growing asparagus, grapes and oranges for foreign markets are laying off workers. With hard times on the way, Mr Whaley worries that what little vegetation remains may be used for firewood.
Whatever his project’s success, Mr Whaley is certain that the future of the tree rests firmly in the hands of the local people. They are encouraged to help with planting, and tree nurseries and seedbanks have been sent up in communities and schools.
“We are not going to Peru saying we are going to reforest the whole of the coast. We are developing a model that we can replicate and hopefully we can get that to be so interesting, or fun, or useful that it’s contagious.”
Hence the idea of an annual huarango festival, started in 2006 and held in April. The festival is a chance to celebrate the tree and the ecosystem it helps support. But it is also about food. The fruit of the tree can be used to make syrup, similar to molasses.
“Fill people’s tummies,” says Mr Whaley. “Where do you get social science and biodiversity overlapping? In the stomach. That is the best place to do it.”
The project has already had some successes, with a reserve set up in Tunga (see map, below), and more planned.
“We are at the beginning of habitat restoration - it’s only a science that’s been around for a couple of decades. Particularly in arid areas, we are only just learning how to do it.
“If I am able to come back in 500 years, then I would know if it has been a success. I will never know in my lifetime if its been a success.”
(via BBC)
ScienceDaily (Apr. 13, 2009) — Widespread die-off of piñon pine across the southwestern United States during future droughts will occur at least five times faster if climate warms by 4 degrees Celsius, even if future droughts are no worse than droughts of the past century, scientists have discovered in experiments conducted at the University of Arizona’s Biosphere 2.
THE acres upon acres of lush tropical forest in the Amazon and tropical Africa are often referred to as the planet’s lungs. But what if they are also its heart? This is exactly what a couple of meteorologists claim in a controversial new theory that questions our fundamental understanding of what drives the weather. They believe vast forests generate winds that help pump water around the planet.
If correct, the theory would explain how the deep interiors of forested continents get as much rain as the coast, and how most of Australia turned from forest to desert. It suggests that much of North America could become desert - even without global warming. The idea makes it even more vital that we recognise the crucial role forests play in the well-being of the planet.
Scientists have known for some time that forests recycle rain. Up to half the precipitation falling on a typical tropical rainforest evaporates or transpires from trees. This keeps the air above moist. Ocean winds can spread the moisture to create more rain. But now Victor Gorshkov and Anastassia Makarieva of the St Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute in Russia say that forests also create winds that pump moisture across continents.
How can forests create wind? Water vapour from coastal forests and oceans quickly condenses to form droplets and clouds. The Russians point out that the gas takes up less space as it turns to liquid, lowering local air pressure. Because evaporation is stronger over the forest than over the ocean, the pressure is lower over coastal forests, which suck in moist air from the ocean. This generates wind that drives moisture further inland. The process repeats itself as the moisture is recycled in stages, moving towards the continent’s heart (see diagram). As a result, giant winds transport moisture thousands of kilometres into the interior of a continent.
(via New Scientist)
“In the absence of trees, our communities would simply collapse,” states Andrew Dokurugu, a project officer for Tree Aid.
Speaking from the charity’s West Africa offices in Burkina Faso, he explains how trees are vital for poor rural villages to survive in the long-term.
Microwaving trees and burying them could help keep carbon dioxide from getting into the atmosphere and contributing to climate change, a scientist has said.
As trees grow they absorb the greenhouse gas, and when they die, or are burned they release it again.
World forests face the dual challenge of climate change and the global economic crisis, a key UN report says.
It suggested that although the economic slowdown might reduce deforestation rates in the short term, it was also likely to lead to other problems.
Deepest Roots
A Wild Fig tree at Echo Caves, near Ohrigstad, Mpumalanga, South Africa has roots reaching 120 meters making it the deepest a tree’s roots have penetrated.
The Fastest Growing Tree
In 1974, it was noted that an Albizzia falcata in Sabah, Malaysia had grown 10,7 meters in 13 months: an approximate of 2,5 centimeters per day.
The Greatest Girth
In the late 18th century a European Chestnut known as the Tree of the Hundred Horses on Mount Etna in Sicily, in Italy had a circumference of 58 meters. It has since separated into three parts.
The Most Dangerous Tree
The Manchineel Tree of the Caribbean coast and the Florida Everglades is a species that secretes an exceptionally poisonous and acid sap. Upon contact to the skin, a break out of blisters would occur. In the occasions where there is contact to the eye, a person can be blinded, and a bite of its fruit causes blistering and severe pain. This tree has been feared ever since the Spanish explorers came to the Americas in the 16th century.
The Most Massive Tree
The “Lindsey Creek Tree”, a Coast Redwood with a minimum trunk volume of 2550 cubic meters and a minimum total mass of 3630 tons was the most massive known tree until it blew over in a storm in 1905. The most massive living tree is “General Sherman”, a giant sequoia found in the Sequoia National Park in California. It is 58 meters tall with a girth of 31 meters.
The Oldest Tree
Found in the Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in California, the oldest tree recognized is a Redwood known as Eternal God. The tree is believed to be 12,000 years old, although it is argued as being only 7,000 years old, which still makes it the oldest.
The Slowest Growing Tree
A White Cedar located in the Great Lakes area of Canada, has only grown to less than 10 centimeters tall during its 155 years.
The Tallest Tree
In 1872, an Australian Eucalyptus at Watts River, Victoria in Australia was said to measure to 132,5 meters, but it is speculated that it probably measured to over 152 meters at some point in its life. The tallest living tree is a Coast Redwood known as the “Mendocino Tree” found in Montgomery State Reserve in California. This tree, which is over 1000 years old, is more than 112 meters tall and still growing.
via Kenstreecare.com
It’s a country where tribal divisions and allegiances are deep-seated and has more than 700 native tongues, but with the help of conservation groups local communities and the government of Papua New Guinea have come together to create the country’s first national conservation area.
Rainforests in Papua New Guinea
Naturalists in Cambridgeshire say they have been astounded by the large number of ancient trees that have been found preserved in the peat soil of the Fens.
Conservationists say dozens of the “bog oaks” - which can be up to 40ft (12m) long - have been unearthed.
They say it is not unusual to encounter one or two during ploughing - but in some areas dozens have been found.
Conservationists say more may be discovered as the Fenland peat is drying out and oxidising.
Fascinating example
The remains of a forest that existed after the ice age, the trees rotted and fell into the peat soil, providing a snapshot of ancient natural history.
It is believed that the peat is disappearing at the rate of about an inch a year.
Although the trees are known by the local name of bog oaks, they can also be yew or pine.
BBC environment correspondent Sarah Mukherjee said they look as though they have just been felled - although some are blue or dark red from the minerals they have absorbed.
Chris Gerard, from the Great Fen Project, says they are a fascinating example of how the area has changed.
“When the glaciers retreated, at that time the sea level was quite low and the Fen basin was a very dry area, and covered in woodland,” he added.
“With the rising sea levels, the rivers couldn’t get out to the sea so quickly, they started to flood the Fen basin and that created the big Fen wetland, which the Fens is really known for, and all the trees that existed then died and fell into that emerging peat soil.”
Paul Mason, from the Haddenham Conservation Society, said they were usually found in twos and threes at most.
“In my fifty years of experience of the Fens here I’ve never seen this many come up at any one time together,” he added.
(via BBC)
: Hi, Not sure that this is true:), but thanks for a post. Have a nice day Bodyc
: Me too, Martin! 
: I like green lifestyle!