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Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

phys.org

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Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#11

Post by pjc50 »

DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

Interesting. I've seen the ones at Wakehurst, a lot were lost during the 1987 hurricane.

I wouldn't worry about rogue trees, pretty much all UK forest is to some extent "curated", even the historic old growth places. And they're not exactly hard to see.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#12

Post by nvdk »

Fricken wrote: post #9
pvaldes wrote: post #3

"[Each Sequoiadendron tree] can potentially pull an average of 85 kilograms of carbon out of the atmosphere per year". I will try to remind this phrase, specially the per year part.

Average Per capita annual emissions for UK residents is 5.22 metric tons, according to Google.

So about 65 trees needed per resident, that might still be doable? edit: nope, of course being a large tree it also needs a lot of land.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#13

Post by dbingham »

DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

They require wild fires to reproduce: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#14

Post by lukan »

DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

"the seeds only being able to grow successfully in full sun and in mineral-rich soils, free from competing vegetation. Although the seeds can germinate in moist needle humus in the spring, these seedlings will die as the duff dries in the summer. They therefore require periodic wildfire to clear competing vegetation and soil humus before successful regeneration can occur" (Wikipedia)

They need fire and sun. (And maybe also cold winters). Britain does not have that.

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#15

Post by mytailorisrich »

DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

The Wikipedia page says that in the wild they usually require wildfires to clear the land and allow the sequoias' seeds to germinates, and the seeds are also fussy:

"Although the seeds can germinate in moist needle humus in the spring, these seedlings will die as the duff dries in the summer. They therefore require periodic wildfire to clear competing vegetation and soil humus before successful regeneration can occur. Without fire, shade-loving species will crowd out young sequoia seedlings, and sequoia seeds will not germinate". [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#16

Post by sequoiamwah »

nvdk wrote: post #12
Fricken wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Average Per capita annual emissions for UK residents is 5.22 metric tons, according to Google.

So about 65 trees needed per resident, that might still be doable? edit: nope, of course being a large tree it also needs a lot of land.

65?

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#17

Post by [deleted] »

dbingham wrote: post #13
DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

They require wild fires to reproduce: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron_giganteum

[deleted]

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#18

Post by lenerdenator »

lukan wrote: post #14
DrBazza wrote: post #8

BBC version of same article - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68518623 > An estimated 500,000 trees are in the UK compared to 80,000 in California. > To assess how these towering giants are adapting to their UK home, scientists selected a sample of nearly 5,000 trees to study at Wakehurst, Benmore Botanic Garden in Argyllshire, Scotland and Havering Country Park in Essex. > However, while the trees are…

"the seeds only being able to grow successfully in full sun and in mineral-rich soils, free from competing vegetation. Although the seeds can germinate in moist needle humus in the spring, these seedlings will die as the duff dries in the summer. They therefore require periodic wildfire to clear competing vegetation and soil humus before successful regeneration can occur" (Wikipedia) They need fire and sun. (And mayb…

me m8 dave can provide the fire so long as the old bill doesn't find out about it (lad's on magistrate's orders to not have matches)

Re: Giant sequoias are a rapidly growing feature of the UK landscape

#20

Post by enriquto »

pjc50 wrote: post #10
pvaldes wrote: post #3

"[Each Sequoiadendron tree] can potentially pull an average of 85 kilograms of carbon out of the atmosphere per year". I will try to remind this phrase, specially the per year part.

Or about one air passenger trip to Europe. ("just plant trees" is not a viable solution to climate change unless you can plant a very large number of trees which live to maturity)

> unless you can plant a very large number of trees which live to maturity

and what, then? When plants die, their matter is decomposed by fungi and all their carbon is released back into the atmosphere (unless the dead plant matter is buried).

The act of planting trees, in itself, is carbon neutral. Not good, not bad, just irrelevant to the presence of carbon: the carbon is still in the cycle of life within the biosphere.

To reverse the burning of fossil fuels, all that new carbon that we introduced into the biosphere needs to be buried back to where it came from. For example, by cutting trees and burying their wood in sealed mines several kilometers underground.

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