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Scientists Discover Link Between Trees and Electricity
An anonymous reader writes "Everyone knows trees give us all oxygen so we can breathe, but according to Australian scientists, they also affect the concentration of positive and negative ions in the air. A team from the Queensland University of Technology's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health ran experiments in six locations all over Brisbane and found that positive and negative ion concentrations in the air were two times higher in heavily wooded areas than in open grassy areas, such as parks."
Shocking!
We clear cut most of the USA long ago.
(something i noticed while looking for some land to buy, the only trees the usa has left in any large areas is in national and state parks.)
The planet is one giant brain!
Static electricity occurs when one thing rubs against another thing. Trees have a lot more surface area for the wind to rub against than empty fields.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
This has been known for a very long time and it's very much common knowledge. Ambient negative ion levels can even be obtained through weather services in my country. My Daikin air conditioner even claims to keep ambient ion levels at "lush forest" levels and it's not near new. Just do a google search for "forest negative ion" and you'll find tons of products and articles on the subject. Why is this at all news?
"Trees act as radon pumps, bringing the gas to the surface and releasing it to the atmosphere through transpiration - a process where water absorbed by the root system is evaporated into the atmosphere from leaves. This is especially prevalent for trees with deep root systems, such as eucalypts."
The QUT scientists estimated that, in a eucalyptus forest, trees may account for up to 37 per cent of the radon in the air when transpiration rates were highest.
So... If I go into the forest, I'm more likely to be breathing radon, and at greater concentrations? Um... I do like the trees, but from this I'm not sure the feeling is mutual...
http://www.livescience.com/5711-electricity-harvested-trees.html
Trees actually produce a small current when a nail is inserted into them and connected to a ground. It is not via the same mechanism as a battery.
As they say, test and experiment, test and experiment. *heads outside with a fork*
You want to know how to help your kids? LEAVE THEM THE F*&K ALONE. --George Carlin
When I read the article's title I thought they finally learned how we could plug our laptops into trees..
Maybe the Terrible, terrible movie whose name shall not be spoken wasn't that far off after all? Just exaggerated the method and effectiveness they were trying to use to kill us?
Maybe you should keep your eyes on the road.
It's called lightning
...are important when discussing science.
Everyone knows that trees give us all oxygen so we can breathe...
Thank you trees! We love you!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=8f2_1254802303
Have gnu, will travel.
There was a guy I read about in one of those kooky FORBIDDEN SCIENCE books you have to order from the back page of a catalog that also sells spirit crystals, dream catchers and cheap swords. I didn't get to read the entire chapter on him, but he was utilizing a system of rods stuck into the ground hear trees to harness energy. It seemed to be pseudo-science of the most laughable sort at the time, but now, I dunno. He could have been on to something.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
Welp, time to remake Lord of The Rings and give those Ents lightning powers.
sudo science freaks
Anonymous Coward is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Ions (charged particles) are not all related to radiation.
Then why are alpha, beta, and gamma radiation called "ionizing"? Alpha is a positive helium ion, and beta is an electron.
Goes along with my theory that the static charge created by the earth moving through it's own atmosphere, through plants and their roots and such, delivers a heavy charge to the crust of the earth. Imagine dryers and spokes on bicycles or rigging on a boat...
There are three kinds of people in the world. Those that can count, and those that can't.
Maybe the Terrible, terrible movie whose name shall not be spoken
You mean The Crappening?
http://www.fia.fs.fed.us/library/briefings-summaries-overviews/docs/ForestFacts.pdf
"It is estimated that—at the beginning of European settlement—
in 1630 the area of forest land that would become
the United States was 1,045 million acres or about 46
percent of the total land area. By 1907, the area of forest
land had declined to an estimated 759 million acres or
34 percent of the total land area. Forest area has been relatively
stable since 1907. In 1997, 747 million acres—or
33 percent of the total land area of the United States—
was in forest land. Today’s forest land area amounts to
about 70 percent of the area that was forested in 1630.
Since 1630, about 297 million acres of forest land have
been converted to other uses—mainly agricultural. More
than 75 percent of the net conversion to other uses
occurred in the 19th century."
And it does go on to describe the kinds of differences - one of which you mention - between historical and contemporary forest composition.
46 & 2
try to get the cable connected to the trees with electron turbines
Trees releasing dangerous radioactive gases into the atmosphere? Egads, we better cut all those polluters down!
Seems this research points to Trees as having an ability to communicate to one another through the concentration of emissions of positive and negative compounds in the air.
The length scale of the communicaiton is vastly longer than nurons in our brains.
So like the Trees in Lord of the Rings, the real Trees are still considering things and planning to devise a proper course of action.
Go Trees!
> Everyone knows that trees give us all oxygen so we can breathe
I certainly don't know any such thing. In fact I thought forests were net zero oxygen because when trees die the decay of the tree consumes as much oxygen as the tree produced during its life. Not to mention that of course at night the tree is burning the sugars it made during the day by photosynthesis.
Plankton is where there is a possible net oxygen increase because when they go dead they can sink, and when that happens they don't decay.
The ratio between wooded and grass would turn u a number. So what.
We need an absolute reference as well.
Otherwise they might change the ambient by 0.0002% and grasslands by 0.0001%
The article seems to imply that radon gar is actually taken up and transpired by trees, but that isn't really the case, is it? I think it's more likely the radon gas is being precipitated* from ground water as tree roots take it up. The consequences are of course still the same, I'm just questioning the implied mechanism.
* (Wrong verb?)
Maybe the Terrible, terrible movie whose name shall not be spoken
You mean The Crappening?
I'm glad someone made it obvious enough for me. I honestly had no frigging idea what he was talking about. I still know nothing about it, and apparently that makes me one of the lucky ones.
wasn't it obvious?
Large amounts of material are transported within trees, material is arranged in small portions over a pretty huge area, and light is processed to produce compounds.
Ok, I am electromagnetic hypersensitive. Some twenty years ago, when it peaked, I nearly could see electricic fields. Fortunately it declined to a far less level since.
cb
Hmmm interesting.
I guess this could explain why in wooded areas there is more cloud formation and hence more precipitation.
Avatar reads as if someone based it on cliff notes from Alan Dean Foster's Midworld novel
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Perhaps the trees aren't directly responsible for the findings -- I mean, the story makes it sound like the trees are actually creating electricity themselves,but perhaps it is more a result of wooded areas, meaning that since the wooded areas tend to give wind resistance, the wind is less likely to disperse these negative ions, so they tend to become more concentrated there.
I'm working on my Master Gardener certification. And I can tell you that EVERY element trees absorb or expel is ionized. Trees don't interact with anything but anions and cations. So there's that! Nothing a $250 course in plants wouldn't have taught you!
"Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
So - is this a Good Thing or a Bad Thing? Or is it just an observation?
antipaucity
In Greg Egan's book, "Distress", there are genetically engineered trees whose roots seek out wires that are buried underground and pump their own internally generated electricity into them.
Also mentioned are mosquitoes that are repelled by the smell of mammal blood, which is something else I think we should look into.
Technoli
Perhaps the trees are attracted to the high ion levels rather than the other way around.
The grass, even the thickest and most densly packed crop of sugar cane, usually has far less depth than a canopy so is going to have less surface area than a typical forest. The wind is going to interact with more than the very top and it's impractical to assume it's flat on top either.
The same applies with the house vs tall building and the wind hitting the wall. Ever wondered why they have little canopies just above ground level at the foot of tall buildings? When a fair chunk of half of the wind that hits the side of the building gets channelled down to ground level it blows things around a bit.
Plants are ages old masters of chemical warfare.