Trees Remember Hard Times
Not long ago I wrote an article for Science News Explores about plant intelligence. It sounds a bit woo-woo, I know, but if you really look at the science, using the word “thinking” when describing what plants do is not quite as out there as it seems. This week I came across another example of cleverness in the plant kingdom, and it gives me hope that ecosystems can survive climate change. Trees, it turns out, remember and adjust to the weather.
Climate change is causing periods of both extreme drought and extremely heavy rains. And this makes life hard for trees. However, at least one species of tree learns from past weather patterns and makes adjustments. Researchers in Germany found that after a five-year drought (created by the researchers using a canopy) Norway Spruce trees grew fewer and shorter needles in the spring. With smaller needles, they lost less water through the pores in the needles. So far so good.
Then three years later, a real drought came. The trees that had experienced the earlier drought did much better than the trees that had never lived through a drought, presumably because they had learned what to expect and cut back on needle production. And that means they may be in a better position to cope with climate change.
Yep, trees are smarter than we thought.
’til next time,
Avery