Thats right, we are going to talk about how trees reproduce and I know you might have been expecting something else from the title. But over the years I have learned that trees may not be the most exciting topic in the world and that you have to trick people into listening to you sometimes so while you are here you should read.
An article in the Journal of Applied Ecology caught my attention this morning because it was talking about tree reproduction and diversity is being limited due to development into rural areas. The problem is that a large majority of trees fertilize by either wind blowing pollen or rain water splashing it around and by building and cutting forest land into many sections, people are killing the genetic diversity of the forest. Wind can't blow pollen for miles and rain water certainly can't get it that far so trees are mating with fewer of their own kind. This may not seem like a big issue, but if only one tree fertilizes another, the genetics of all the seeds are absolutely the same. This means that they all have the same weaknesses and can be wiped out in one swoop leaving the forest barren. The more holes that humans poke in the forest, the greater the number of trees that lose genetic diversity, the greater the chance of a lot of them dying off when one disease or insect attacks. This would mean that wood production would go down and a lot of the stuff you use has some wood in it. If you brushed your teeth this morning, there was a little bit of wood in your toothpaste and if you drove to school this morning, there was wood in your tires and most likely in the plastic on your dash. While not the wood that you and I most often think about, those things are made up of the many components of wood such as cellouse and lignin. Just a little bit to think about.
I have greatly summerized the article to make it reasonable to understand, but there is an issue here, because genetic diversity plays a big role in many species survival. Without, the entire species can be affected by the same pressures and die off. I used to have a teacher that loved to say the stuff we were learning was as interesting as watching pine trees have sex, but in reality this stuff is pretty interesting because America would not be the country it is today without its' forest resources.
I didn't realize that wood is so prevalent in things we use everyday. Is there anyway that we can diversify the forest ourselves? I feel like it would clearly be better if the trees did this naturally, but could humans possibly take pollen from one species of tree and fertilize another different tree? This would at least allow for some diversity even if it is not natural. Just an idea.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me wonder how much longer we will be able to continue growing our population at such a fast rate. Many of the chunks we are taking out of our forests are for new large neighborhood developments and shopping centers. I think our world can only sustain so much development. The forest depletion and damaged tree genetics are just the beginning of the effects our rapid population growth will have on the earth.
ReplyDeleteI am learning about the basics of "sex in the woods" in my intro plant bio class, and this is an important issue to consider when looking at urban growth in the United States.
ReplyDeleteThis is an argument for environmental or conservation corridors. By keeping tracts of forest connected as much as possible, there is a greater chance for ecological diversity (plants, animals, etc). It also relates to human genetics in that diversity in the gene pool is important to our survival.
ReplyDeleteIts amazing how people see a title that contains the word sex and everybody has to read it but that is life we are all interested. Its funny how most people do not think of plants having sex but its true they have to reproduce for species survival just like humans.
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