21 April 2010

prehistoric extent of redwood forests








[click image]

.
As contrasted with today.
.

Do you grok that the Gobi was once a vast redwood forest?
.

\\\\\ 4/21/2010 12:33:00 AM \\\\\

8 comments:

  1. Old Uncle Dave4/21/10, 8:48 AM

    Where now is the Sahara desert used to be green, lush, and full of wildlife before climate change dried it out. Shit happens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. wimpy4/21/10, 12:39 PM

    Deforestation causes climate change... causes clouds to tend to go elsewhere. There's science out there on this. They think it not only applies with no trees where trees were and to a lesser extent with young trees where old trees were. You can see the difference in green between young stands and ancients on Google Maps' satellite view. The old guys are very dark, dark green and the younger ones, especially with all the weed trees that grow with them until they're big enough to close the canopy, are much lighter green. This green business draws clouds and maybe even creates them because of how much sunlight they've soaked in instead of reflected keeping enough warmth. It's very elegant how redwoods draw moisture from the air and water themselves with drips and the so they keep a relatively warm humidity cycle going.

    Some places could be replanted and bring back the weather if humans could keep them watered long enough for them to get this cycle going again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bluebear24/21/10, 12:50 PM

    Drill baby Drill!

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/us/22rig.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Bluebear24/21/10, 1:08 PM

    Where now is the Sahara desert used to be green, lush, and full of wildlife before climate change dried it out.

    I've heard several theories ranging from weather pattern changes due to the formation of the Himalayas to a shift in the earth's axis and orbit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. wimpy4/21/10, 1:14 PM

    I don't have my forestry books and can't remember the names on the studies that show it's the deforestation itself that does it. Lebanon was covered with cedars. They chopped them all down. The Chinese leveled the forests of the Gobi. Same deal in North Africa, and here in the Sonora and Mojave. You denude the landscape, the clouds blow away and they don't come back.

    ReplyDelete
  6. wimpy4/21/10, 1:21 PM

    I mean, yes, I know changes in weather patterns from other causes plays hell with all manner of vegetation, and I don't know if this holds with broadleaf trees, but it does with the conifers, ESPECIALLY redwood and cedar, because their foliage is shaped to catch the most water from fog, and the trees themselves are shaped and sized to get this advantage. Lot's of relatively warm moisture on the ground from this action of very dark green conifer canopy actually creates clouds and fog, plus bringing them to them.

    ReplyDelete
  7. wimpy4/21/10, 1:35 PM

    It's pretty easy to see that Greenland being shoved northward was the cause of them dying out there... but mayhap Vikings or their forebears did those ones in.

    There are a few deciduous redwoods left in China. They're kind of creepy though, for me, having grown up in the redwoods, to see ones that go bald every winter. This may have been an adaptation to climate change that made it too cold for them.

    I'm not sure of a lot of it, but I really AM sure that those guys proved the relationship between canopy density and color and keeping enough precipitation to sustain the forest. Obviously, the industry didn't let THAT one get too famous, but it's true.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Bluebear24/22/10, 7:15 AM

    Years ago we spent a weekend at a bed and breakfast inn called the "House of a thousand flowers". It was on a ridge-top overlooking Duncan Mills and the Russian River. It was set on the side of a steep hill covered with redwoods.

    The driveway dove steeply to the house, we were concerned that our VW bus wouldn't make it back out. From the driveway was a bridge which went to a deck on the third floor of the house. The opposite side of the house had a deck with a wonderful view.

    At night the fog rolls in off the ocean and by morning it is "raining" from the moisture dripping from the trees.

    The decks were covered with potted flowering plants of all kinds and the three story chimney was covered top to bottom with fuchsias grown from cuttings the owner had brought from South America.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)