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The trees, it seems, are equalizing differences between the strong and the weak.
a beech forest is more productive when the trees are packed together.
Their well-being depends on their community, and when the supposedly feeble trees disappear, the others lose as well.
The distinction between plant and animal is, after all, arbitrary and depends on the way an organism feeds itself:
Sometimes I suspect we would pay more attention to trees and other vegetation if we could establish beyond a doubt just how similar they are in many ways to animals.
But we know only a tiny fraction of what there is to know about the complex life that busies itself under our feet.
Up to half the biomass of a forest is hidden in this lower story.
There are more life forms in a handful of forest soil than there are people on the planet.
While we are on the subject of erosion: it is one of the forest’s most dangerous natural enemies.
In intact forests, the soil under the trees becomes deeper and richer over time so that growing conditions for trees constantly improve.
They appear everywhere at the intersection between birth and decay, and so they must be considered essential components of the ecosystem.
There are so many ways that forests can be kept both undisturbed and productive!
All are basically ruthless, and the only reason everything doesn’t collapse is because there are safeguards against those who demand more than their due.
an organism that is too greedy and takes too much without giving anything in return destroys what it needs for life and dies out.
Every square yard is used for urban areas or agriculture. And so the deer have retreated to the forest,
higher species diversity stabilizes the forest ecosystem.
The more species there are around, the less chance there is that a single one will take over to the detriment of the others,
The lethal results show how species-rich life is way up high. The scientist counted 2,041 animals belonging to 257 different species.
the dead trunk is as indispensable for the cycle of life in the forest as the live tree.
fifth of all animal and plant species—that’s about six thousand of the species we know about—depend on dead wood.
In the forest, there’s a battle for every last ray of sunlight, and each species is specialized to grow in a particular niche so that it can soak up some energy, however paltry the amount might be.
Except for a few individual trees, there are hardly any beeches to be found there. But they are ready and waiting.
The moment people stop interfering, they will resume their northward migration.
Water is one of the key factors for growth in the forest, and this is where the beeches score big time.
As soon as the climate warms up and becomes more Mediterranean, these trees are going to have a hard time.
SO WHY DO trees live so long?
The shorter the interval before the next generation, the more quickly animals and plants can adapt.
Trees employ two strategies to stoically endure these changes: behavior and genetic variability.
Trees exhibit great tolerance for variations in climate.
When temperatures and rainfall fluctuate, many animals and fungi move from south to north and vice versa. That means that trees must also be able to adapt to unfamiliar pests.
Shortly after fertilization, when the seeds are ripening in the flower, they react to environmental conditions.
speedy adaptation is not an option, but other responses are available. In a forest that has been left to its own devices, the genetic makeup of each individual tree belonging to the same species is very different.
Not only the climate but also the type of soil and the moisture levels must fit their lifestyles if they are going to prevail in the presence of the old trees that already rule the forest.
And thanks to the great genetic diversity in a single species of tree, there is always a sufficient number of individuals that can rise to a new challenge.
Trees could solve the problem if people trying to improve things would only allow them to take over.
Native must be understood on a much smaller scale and be based not on human borders but on habitats.
Habitats are defined by their features (water, terrain, topography) and by the local climate.
The air truly is considerably cleaner under the trees, because the trees act as huge air filters.
is the filtered particles from human activity, however, that are particularly harmful. Acids, toxic hydrocarbons, and nitrogen compounds accumulate in the trees like fat in the filter of an exhaust fan above a kitchen stove. But not only do trees filter materials out of the air, they also pump substances into it.
Is it possible that you could unconsciously register the trees’ state of alarm?
the blood pressure of forest visitors rises when they are under conifers, whereas it calms down and falls in stands of oaks.66
It’s possible that phytoncides have a beneficial effect on our immune systems as well as the trees’ health, because they kill germs.
I am convinced that we intuitively register the forest’s health.
tree roots can breathe as well. If they didn’t, deciduous trees would die in winter when they discard their aboveground lungs.
And that is why it is so awful for a tree if the soil around its trunk has been so compacted that the small air pockets in the soil have been crushed.
oak deaths in one American city happened because the trees were subjected to light every night.
WHY DO WE find it so much more difficult to understand plants than animals?
The main reason we misunderstand trees, however, is that they are so incredibly slow. Their childhood and youth last ten times as long as ours. Their complete life-span is at least five times as long as ours.
so it seems to us that trees are static beings,
the dead spruce and pines are midwives to the new deciduous forest. They store water in their dead trunks, which help cool the hot summer air to a bearable temperature. When they fall over, the impenetrable barricade of trunks acts as a natural fence through which no deer can pass.
