User Tag List

+ Reply to Thread
Results 1 to 1 of 1

Thread: Canopy Soil Is an Exciting Frontier in Forest Science

  1. #1

    tPF Moderator
    Points: 473,135, Level: 100
    Level completed: 0%, Points required for next Level: 0
    Overall activity: 69.0%
    Achievements:
    Social50000 Experience PointsTagger First ClassYour first GroupVeteranRecommendation First ClassOverdrive
    Awards:
    Master Tagger
    DGUtley's Avatar tPF Moderator
    Karma
    200769
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Northeast Ohio
    Posts
    52,922
    Points
    473,135
    Level
    100
    Thanks Given
    17,060
    Thanked 46,039x in 24,874 Posts
    Mentioned
    886 Post(s)
    Tagged
    0 Thread(s)

    Exclamation Canopy Soil Is an Exciting Frontier in Forest Science

    Canopy Soil Is an Exciting Frontier in Forest Science

    High in the branches of the Pacific Northwest, entire ecosystems know nothing of the ground below.


    B70E5B42-E360-4ADE-BF1F-3817F492B430.jpeg


    THE HALL OF MOSSES, A looped hiking trail in Washington State’s Hoh Rain Forest, is known for a kind of otherworldly lusciousness. Vibrant ferns line misty paths. The roots of centuries-old trees tangle around each other, forming miniature mazes. Most spectacularly, soft moss coats the towering Sitka spruce trees, drooping in fringed curtains from the branches. It’s awe-inspiring, but there’s more wonder in store. “When you look up, you see that beautiful green drapery,” says Korena Mafune, a soil ecologist based at the University of Washington in Seattle, “but the real secrets are what it holds underneath it.”


    It’s impossible to tell from the ground, but on the branches, beneath the trailing moss, is a whole lot of dirt. This “engulfing mat of organic matter,” as Mafune calls it, is a soil formed from fallen leaves, airborne particulates, and moisture that accumulate in the nooks and crannies well off the forest floor. Built up over decades or centuries, this canopy soil provides a home for insects, fungi, birds, worms, and epiphytes, which are plants that grow on other plants—and much of this life never touches the ground. It’s an aerial ecosystem, a network of life that’s only possible in old-growth forests.


    F7398B99-8A52-436F-9B75-E67BD1DE6CEA.jpeg


    The study of the canopy layer—the network of leaves and branches above the forest floor—is a relatively new science. Before the 1980s, scientists were largely focused on the forest floor. “I wish I’d interviewed an old forester in the year 1900 to say, ‘How come you’ve never thought about the whole tree?’” says “arbonaut” Margaret Lowman. “But it just never seemed to be part of the formula.”


    834E1F20-ACD2-440C-B1FF-E50AB76D59D1.jpeg


    3EECD1EE-7559-4864-B060-21F2C50F3608.jpeg



    https://www.atlasobscura.com/article...ific-northwest
    Any time you give a man something he doesn't earn, you cheapen him. Our kids earn what they get, and that includes respect. -- Woody Hayes​

  2. The Following User Says Thank You to DGUtley For This Useful Post:

    Peter1469 (04-25-2022)

+ Reply to Thread

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts