Tree of Souls - An Avatar Community Forum - Old mossy trees are vital parts of forests

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Old mossy trees are vital parts of forests

Bacteria on old-growth trees may help forests grow

Quote:

"What we're doing is putting large old trees into a context where they're an integral part of what a forest is," says Dr. Lindo. "These large old trees are doing something: they're providing habitat for something that provides habitat for something else that's fertilizing the forest. It's like a domino effect; it's indirect but without the first step, without the trees, none of it could happen.
...
"Moss is the crucial element. The amount of nitrogen coming from the canopy depends on trees having mosses.

"You need trees that are large enough and old enough to start accumulating mosses before you can have the cyanobacteria that are associated with the mosses," Lindo said. "Many trees don't start to accumulate mosses until they're more than 100 years old.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/2...0607121144.jpg
Talk about "everything is connected" - The old trees can do things that young ones cannot, they contribute to a series of connections that lead to an improved growth of the overall forest.

And of course this means (captain obvious): Old growth forests are working very differently from "tree farms" (a.k.a. managed forests). Amolst none of the old growth forests are left in the US and Central Europe - most forest that can be seen there are tree farms, designed to grow fast, be cut within decades to provide a "sustainable" source of wood for pulp and paper, energy (e.g. biofuel, wood chip heaters) or construction.

Wow that is an eye opener. ;) Reminds me a little of the algae on the underwater surfaces of cliffs and rocks. It's a micro environment for little shellfish and molluscs.

God I really want to climb the tree in that first picture. It looks absolutely perfect for one to just run right up.

I can attest to old trees being great animal homes. There are at least four 100+ year old oaks around my house. The amount of animals nests/burrows in them are absolutely amazing.

Huh, the Cyanobacteria thing is really interesting.

I'd also like to point out that while there aren't a huge quantity of old growth forests left in the US, the state/national park system has an iron fist around the ones there are, and some of them are quite large.

It makes sense, nothing evolves to survive on its own in an ecosystem.

Far too many 'forests' are nothing but identical, small trees :(

Quote:

Originally Posted by Human No More (Post 146797)

It makes sense, nothing evolves to survive on its own in an ecosystem.

Far too many 'forests' are nothing but identical, small trees :(

:'( If I could go back in time for any one reason, it might be to see some old forests from thousands of years ago.