How Does Fog Affect Redwood Forest

Every forest has a story to tell. By looking closely at its habitants, that story can be interpreted. Much of this narrative is written in the trees: their age, their tolerance to shade, and the rate at which they grow are all characteristics that can imply a lot about their environment. Exploring these relationships and how they connect with each other can indicate the health and history of the land. Heiberg Forest, located in northern New York, was once used for agricultural purposes in the 1800-1900’s. (Nowak, Lecture Notes) Much of the land once used for farming was left to regrow back into a young forest. The life history of different tree species can be determined by examining the most common species in Heiberg.

The annual rate of precipitation, and elevational range once generated a strong foundation for a wide diversity of vegetation

Under the soil of the forest there is a huge layer of redwood roots. Roots from a redwood tree may only grow 3 feet down but they can grow up to 20 feet out away from the trunk of the tree. The roots of many redwood trees are grown together any many times, when a tree starts to lean, the thick layer of roots can hold it up. When redwoods start getting cut down this can ruin the layer of roots that covers almost all of the forest. Then redwood trees would not have much support as they do and would be more inclined to fall over. Cutting down redwoods would also lower the chance of reproduction. Redwood trees only reproduce every so often, this process could take over five years. First the redwood drops acorns that fall to the forest floor. Then after some time, a larger type or acorns is dropped and releases pollen which pollinates the first acorn (Hemmerich 2014). Many of the seeds do not grow at all. Only about one in every 200 seeds will grow and become a full sized redwood tree. Of course this process does not happen overnight, it can take up to 100 years for a seed to grow and become a mature redwood tree (Hemmerich 2014).

The GTA is located in the southern Ontario potion of the Deciduous Forest Biome. The Deciduous Forest Biome extends across Ontario and into the Maritime provinces (Course Manual 19). In the portion of the biome where the GTA is located, the temperature ranges from -12 degrees celcius to over 20 degrees celcuis (Course Manual 19). Its recieves an average of 250 centimetres of snow and 75 centimetres of rain per year (Course Manual 21). The GTA recieves a broad spectrum of weather with multiple winter storms and summer heat spells common throughout the year. Due to the ideal growing season and abundant nutrients, the Deciduous Forest Biome is home to a number of diverse plant and animal species. Unfortunatly, due to large populations and human influences, the biomes forests are threatened with never ending agricultural development and urban expansion. High population rates also impact waste disposal, healthy drinking water, pollution and overfishing (Course Manual 23). In fact, this compact area of the Deciduous Forest Biome has the largest negative impact on climate change in all of

Hoover, David. “Chronic Drought Impacts on Colorado Plateau ecosystems (Rain-Out Experiment).” USGS, www.usgs.gov/centers/sbsc/science/chronic-drought-impacts-colorado-plateau-ecosystems-rain-out?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects. Accessed March 17, 2018.

Temperature influences the distribution of plants and this is another abiotic factor. In the Lions club tower I could feel the difference in temperature. Bottom at being cold and moist whereas the top is warm and dry. This is shown clearly on the average table. Temperatures such as snow or frost determines the distribution of plants as most plants cannot prevent freezing because of their tissues and this abiotic factor affects the plantae group. Other effects that could cause an establishment to particular plants due to temperature is the gemination of biennial plants, and this is during spring or summer known as vernalization. This is the cooling of seed in order to quickly adapt to the environment and the abiotic factors. As of the forest

Looking further into the impacts of the Rodeo-Chediski fire the trees saw the greatest impact of the fire. Almost 90% of the trees suffered complete crown kill (Ffolliott, 2008). Either some trees had survived with low severity, were harmed, or dead because of the drought and the fire combined. Even though some of the trees that had faced high severity apparently after having seen what trees had survived the fire yet by 2004 two years after the fire they had died (Ffolliott, 2008). The wildfire also impacted the standardization structure, post-fire mortality of trees, and stocking of tree reproduction on the Steamer Ridge Watershed (Ffolliott, 2008). After the fire had finally been contained the density of the forest had been forever changed.

The Acadian forest in Canada takes up 12.1 million hectares, and can be distinguished from other parts of Canadian forests by its location in the lowlands and deep valleys and by its mixed hardwood and softwood composition. The position of these trees in deep valleys isolates them from other forests, and limits their ability to further naturally spread their population geographically, and causes them to be more significantly impacted by disturbances. The Acadian forest region covers the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, with a rich diversity of plant and animal species consisting of many shade-tolerant trees and lichens. Yet these shade-tolerant trees are slowly transitioning into small seedlings as logging practices abolish old trees. The old-growth hardwood population in specific provides critical habitats for animal species though these trees are declining in numbers due to extensive logging. With the declining old-growth trees, the number of critical habitats will also decline and animal species will most likely die out. These regions are affected by climate change at the same time, which increases the vulnerability of Acadian biodiversity.

Yet, water limitations are reducing the capacity of black spruce. With a decrease of the Black Spruce species within this ecosystem, there will be inevitably less trees to fix carbon. With the inability for a biological system to convert carbon dioxide to organic compound, this leaves CO2 within the atmosphere, increasing the Greenhouse house gas effect and thus surface temperatures. Additionally, supporting the fact that future warming may result in drought stress, further prohibiting the growth of the Black Spruce species. This affect is bound to trigger a compositional change, consequently impacting the whole ecosystem. This should not be considered unanticipated information, seeing as there is a direct relationship between vegetation and climate change in boreal ecosystems. Warm climates may not be suitable for all species within that habitat, so species will naturally migrate as the temperature increases. Forest fires alone can have long-lasting effects on the environment, in terms of community succession, which has been briefly

Albino redwoods and fungi share similarities, while also differing in some traits. When it comes to the structure of both plants, albino redwoods have green and yellowish needles, a combination of normal and albino tissues, and male and female cones (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140319-redwood-albino-chimera-california-tree-tallest/), while fungi have vegetative tissues (hyphae and mycelium), reproductive bodies/structures and spores. Both fungi and albino redwoods do not contain chlorophyll, so they are dependent on other living organisms to provide them with nutrients. Fungi are described as either decomposers or saprotrophs, while albino redwoods are parasites. Albino redwoods act as parasites by stealing nutrients from

Banff National Park in Alberta Canada has a very interesting climate. The study site only a few miles away from the city of Banff resides on the front ranges of the Rocky Mountains. The Continental Divide is only 45 km (28 miles) west of the study location. The climate around the park as a whole is interesting. It is commonly known to be completely different weather at varying temperatures all over the park. Throughout the day, the weather frequently changes dramatically. Areas studied included dry meadows, shrub-fields and shrub-lands, open or immature forest and mature forests. All of which have a nutrient rich post-wildfire soil. The forests are primarily spruce, lodgepole pine, subalpine fir and alpine larch.

Climate change is one of the most controversial topics of the century. Many scientists believe that the main cause of global climate change is human impact. Specifically, the expansion of the “greenhouse effect”. The burning of fossil fuels has increased the atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, causing the Earth’s temperature to gradually increase. This will eventually cause areas, like the Chippewa Forest, to lose all of its astonishing wildlife and plant life. The Chippewa Forest is a serene national forest located in northern Minnesota. It has eight different wetlands with distinct animal and plant species and it contains two of the largest lakes in Minnesota. Using direct data will provide an accurate indication about what will happen in

One of the most significant concerns that have existed in the ecosystem for decades now is the issue of pollution. Pollution in itself is the destruction of the normal concentration and manifestation of factors such as water, soil, air and others in the ecosystem. This destruction largely arises from the human activities that often lead to misbalance, increased wastes concentration and improper positioning of the necessary and unnecessary additions to the environment. This often leads to the destruction of biodiversity, which is an important balance to the whole cycle of living organisms in that they support each other for their co-existence. If at all the number of animals reduce in the world to a very small number then a threat is posed to the living organisms since it will translate to it having to reduce also (Turner 2014).

One of the dig problems on how global warming is affecting the earth is the impact on the trees like the true ecological kings of the jungle,

Our lab investigated the morphological characteristics of leaves found in the sun and shade on various species of maple and oak trees around campus. Our null hypothesis was Acer and Quercus acclimate similarly with regards to SLW (specific leaf weight), size, and sinuosity. Our hypothesis was Quercus acclimation is greater than Acer SLW, size, and sinuosity. We tested these hypotheses by picking small sections of a branches from both maple and oak trees. A group was assigned either a maple or an oak tree, and needed a total of three different trees per group. Once three different trees were chosen, groups needed three shade leaves and three sun leaves of off each different tree. In total, each group should then end up with 18 leaves for testing. After collecting the leaves, we ran them through the LiCor 3100 leaf area meter to identify the area of each leaf. Major results found by the classes’ mutual data was each one of our p-values were greater than .05. This means that we failed to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, the lab results do not support our hypothesis that Quercus acclimation is greater than Acer SLW, size, and sinuosity.