and that’s why tree roots can breathe as well. If they didn’t, deciduous trees would die in winter when they discard their aboveground lungs. But the trees keep ticking over and their roots even grow a little, so energy must be produced with the help of the trees’ reserves, and for this the trees need oxygen. 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.
