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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

#2
>The tallest tree they found measured about 180 feet tall (54.87 meters)—giant compared with most native UK species, but dwarfed by their American counterparts. I wonder if that have anything to do with communicating vessels effect. The really big ones grow in the mountains, so I imagine it's easier to pump water that high if trees roots can "climb" the slope next to trunk.

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

#4
post #2

>The tallest tree they found measured about 180 feet tall (54.87 meters)—giant compared with most native UK species, but dwarfed by their American counterparts. I wonder if that have anything to do with communicating vessels effect. The really big ones grow in the mountains, so I imagine it's easier to pump water that high if trees roots can "climb" the slope next to trunk.

Well, the oldest Sequoia in the UK are 160 years old. The article says they keep up their rapid growth throughout their potential lifespan of 3,000 years - so they are babies.

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

#5
post #2

>The tallest tree they found measured about 180 feet tall (54.87 meters)—giant compared with most native UK species, but dwarfed by their American counterparts. I wonder if that have anything to do with communicating vessels effect. The really big ones grow in the mountains, so I imagine it's easier to pump water that high if trees roots can "climb" the slope next to trunk.

Give them time; they're young trees yet.

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

#6
post #2

>The tallest tree they found measured about 180 feet tall (54.87 meters)—giant compared with most native UK species, but dwarfed by their American counterparts. I wonder if that have anything to do with communicating vessels effect. The really big ones grow in the mountains, so I imagine it's easier to pump water that high if trees roots can "climb" the slope next to trunk.

[deleted]

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

#7
> We found that UK redwoods are well adapted to the UK and able to capture a large amount of carbon dioxide.

Are the UK's giant sequoias predominately naturally-grown or human-planted? If the trees successfully adapt their reproduction cycle to the UK, then I imagine that they could become a new invasive (albeit easy-to-cull) species.

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

#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 doing well in the UK, there's little chance of them taking over our native forests any time soon - they're not reproducing here as they need very specific conditions to take seed.

I'm curious about the final statement - the article goes to great lengths to emphasize the similarity in conditions, so I wonder what would be missing that would prevent sequoias from reproducing. And to quote a phrase 'life, uh, finds a way'.

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

#9
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.

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

#10
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)

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