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Networking the Redwoods
linuxwrangler writes "SF Gate is reporting that ecology researchers are outfitting a grove of trees with tiny "micromote" sensors to monitor the light, humidity and other conditions as the trees grow. The sensors, running the open-source Tiny OS, form and maintain their own network. This test of the "Smart Dust" concept (mentioned on /. earlier) only uses 50 sensors but scientists hope to be able to deploy the sensors on a large scale to help figure out why California's Redwoods are dying off at an alarming rate."
Last I heard was that redwoods need to have a fire to germinate the seeds. Otherwise new tree won't grow. So is it really that redwoods are dying off, or is it that our mis-informed forest management has kept fires from going trough and letting new trees grow. I was at Armstrong Woods a couple of weeks ago (big redwood grove out past Guernville in Sonoma county). They had actually resorted to planting new redwoods. Let them BURN!!!! You'll actually get more trees. At least that is what I've heard...
Who needs Kyoto, period? Mostly just people like Johnny Cretin (mispelling intentional) who need a legacy. Otherwise it's just a waste of resources directed at the wrong problem.
Take a look at this: (http://www.scienceagogo.com)
"14 August 2003
Cosmic Rays The Biggest Culprit In Global Warming
Global warming will not be reduced much by efforts to limit carbon dioxide emission into the atmosphere, say two scientists.
Dr. Nir Shaviv, an astrophysicist from the Racah Institute of Physics of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Prof. Jan Veiser a geochemist at the University of Ottawa in Canada, say that temperature variations are due more to cosmic forces than to the actions of man.
In a recent article published in GSA Today, the journal of the Geographic Society of America, Shaviv and Veiser tell of their studies illustrating a correlation between past cosmic ray flux - the high-energy particles reaching us from stellar explosions - and long-term climate variability, as recorded by oxygen isotopes trapped in rocks formed by ancient marine fossils. The level of cosmic ray activity reaching the earth and its atmosphere was reconstructed using another isotopic record in meteorites.
The study showed that peak periods of cosmic rays reaching the earth over the past 550 million years coincided with lower global temperatures, apparently due to the way that the cosmic rays promote low-level cloud formation, hence blocking out the sun. No correlation was obtained, however, with the changing amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
The conclusion of the two scientists is that celestial processes seem to be the dominant influence on climate change, and that increased carbon dioxide release, while certainly not beneficial, is only secondary to those forces which are beyond our control.
In practical terms, says Dr. Shaviv, "The operative significance of our research is that a significant reduction of the release of greenhouse gases will not significantly lower the global temperature, since only about a third of the warming over the past century should be attributed to man." Thus, say the scientists, the Kyoto accord of 1997 - which was aimed at tackling the global warming phenomenon through limitations on carbon dioxide - is not the panacea some thought it would be.
Taking the long-range view, Dr. Shaviv and Prof. Veiser believe that fluctuations in cosmic ray emissions account for about 75 percent of climate variation throughout the millennia. They acknowledge that this position pits them against prevailing scientific opinion, which still places a heavy emphasis on the negative role of greenhouse gases. "
First off, our relationship with naturally occuring forest fires need to change in a big way (and not by cutting down all the trees as our idiotic president suggested recently). And, of course, fire is needed by some pine and fir trees. That said, I'm 99.9% positive this is not true of redwoods. For one thing, fire is very rare in areas where coastal redwood trees grow (but it does happen - mostly lightning strikes)...
I'm not a forester, rather a geographer by education and computer geek by profession, but I've lived in Humboldt County for the last 16 years, and I think I would have heard about the redwood tree germination/fire connection if there was one.
On a side note, I've meet the professor from Humboldt State University in the article, Steve Sillett (I used to drive fieldtrips when I was a student at HSU). He (and his students) use crossbows to shoot a thin line over a sturdy branch (sometimes over 100 feet high), and then pull over sucessivly thicker lines. Then they pull out the "climbing ascenders" (pull up and clamp the right one, step up, pull up and clamp the left one, step up - repeat a couple hundred times). Every effort is made to do no harm to the trees. There truly is a whole ecosystem in those redwoods, including newts and other creatures that have never been on the ground.
There is an IMAX film called Adventures in Wild California which features Steve climbing and studying tall trees (this time sequoias rather than coastal redwoods). While not the best IMAX movies I've seen, the scenery is awesome.
just my 2 cents....
Personally its not God I dislike, its his fan club I cant stand (bash.org)
The redwood trees are tough but that doesn't mean they're immune to any of the factors known to affect tree health. For example, one of the most basic factors affecting tree health is water supply. Any tree will start dying if water availability in its root zone is reduced below a survival threshold value. We know that compared to 50 years or more ago, California has been consuming more and more water, especially groundwater, to the extent that there are water supply arguments. In many places the water table has been dropping even during wetter years. This could be a pointer to the cause of the trees' problems.
Scroogle