Trees In The City
In the article "City Trees Grow Faster, But Seedlings Struggle To Take Root" by Hannah Waters on January 14, 2013 she explains how have to deal with different growing conditions but how they grow faster. Development usually causes deforestation but 2.8% of tree canopy cover in the U.S. is in cities.Cities are notorious heat islands. Carbon dioxide levels are higher because of cars exhaust that we drive. Although high temperatures aren't the best thing for trees in cities, higher temperatures make trees have a longer growing season which means more time to get a higher height. Excess nitrogen may have acted as a fertilizer to trees. Urban and rural forests receive more human foot traffic so seedlings that are trying to take root are most likely stepped on and trampled to death.
I choose this article because it is interesting. I did not know that the temperature that trees are growing in mattered to the way trees develop and how fast they develop. What was most interesting to me is that trees grow faster in cities because of the higher temperatures. One reason for temperatures being high is because asphalt and dark rooftops absorb so much heat that it rises summertime and night time temperatures.
I think the next step that should be taken is to eliminate parts of urban and rural forests for a certain amount of time. Doing this will allow seedlings to take root and be able to grow instead of being trampled to death by humans. The increased temperature and nitrogen is impacting the growth of trees but this could rejigger the typical composition we see in regional forests. For this problem i think that we should reduce the amount of dark rooftops so that it does not absorb as much heat that the trees have to take in and adapt to. This change could ultimately save typical composition we see in regional forests.
Permanent Address: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2013/01/14/city-tree-growth/
I choose this article because it is interesting. I did not know that the temperature that trees are growing in mattered to the way trees develop and how fast they develop. What was most interesting to me is that trees grow faster in cities because of the higher temperatures. One reason for temperatures being high is because asphalt and dark rooftops absorb so much heat that it rises summertime and night time temperatures.
I think the next step that should be taken is to eliminate parts of urban and rural forests for a certain amount of time. Doing this will allow seedlings to take root and be able to grow instead of being trampled to death by humans. The increased temperature and nitrogen is impacting the growth of trees but this could rejigger the typical composition we see in regional forests. For this problem i think that we should reduce the amount of dark rooftops so that it does not absorb as much heat that the trees have to take in and adapt to. This change could ultimately save typical composition we see in regional forests.
Permanent Address: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2013/01/14/city-tree-growth/