All - Thanks to everyone who has supplied me with new tree facts and
resources to use. I greatly appreciate the assistance. I have been asked
to share those results, and below I have summarized what people have
sent me so far.
With respect to numbers of leaves - that's all over the place,
because of species differences, and size differences. Estimates range
from 50,000/smaller tree to 2 Billion for a large sequoia. Last year's
Nature article on how many trees are out there suggested that we could
have 3.04 Trillion trees (a large increase from our previous estimates,
nearly 8x larger), but it also points out that this is probably just
half of what we used to have. Nevertheless, if you assume a mean leaf
number of 500,000 leaves/needles per tree, that comes to 1.5 x 10^18
leaves out there (1.5 million trillion leaves). Of course, one could get
better estimates using weighted values, but this still gets the point
across that there are lots of leaves (as anyone who rakes them in the
fall can attest!). It would be interesting to model C uptake, using
these numbers, PAR penetration into the canopy, extinction coefficients,
etc. and see how close these numbers are to the big global models and
measurements of C uptake worldwide.
*Here are the responses received so far:*
Nice compilation of stats on trees:
https://www.ncsu.edu/project/treesofstrength/treefact.htm
Number of leaves: Top of page 32 in Crane and von Knorring’s book:
Gingko: The Tree That Time Forgot (2015).
Transpiration: http://water.usgs.gov/edu/watercycletranspiration.html
Note also that a website I found cited Steve Sillett, from Humboldt
State University in Arcata, CA as saying that he has estimated a very
large sequoia could have 2 Billion needles.
Another respondent included this citation: For your first question, I
was reminded of the post on the giant sequoia, named the President. It
was estimated to have about 2 billion leaves on just 1 tree. Check this
NPR article, which probably cites actual research:
http://www.npr.org/sections/pictureshow/2012/12/13/167163801/one-photo-126-frames-2-billion-leaves-247-feet
Also, a paper by Vose et al. (2011) includes data on individual tree
water use. That citation is: Vose, J.M. et al. 2011. Forest
ecohydrological research in the 21^st century: what are the critical
needs? Ecohydrology (DOI:10.1002/eco.193).
Another viewer provided these lines from Henry Thoreau’s The Maine
Woods, which I found very moving:
"/Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives
and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light, - to see
its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of
many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But
the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and
houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man
is to be cut down and made into manure. There is a higher law affecting
our relation to pines as well as to men. A pine cut down, a dead pine,
is no more a pine than a dead human carcass is a man. Can he who has
discovered only some of the values of whalebone and whale oil be said to
have discovered the true use of the whale? Can he who slays the elephant
for his ivory be said to have ``seen the elephant''? These are petty and
accidental uses; just as if a stronger race were to kill us in order to
make buttons and flageolets of our bones; for everything may serve a
lower as well as a higher use. Every creature is better alive than dead,
men and moose and pine-trees, and he who understands it aright will
rather preserve its life than destroy it./
/"Is it the lumberman, then, who is the friend and lover of the pine,
stands nearest to it, and understands its nature best? Is it the tanner
who has barked it, or he who has boxed it for turpentine, whom posterity
will fable to have been changed into a pine at last? No! no! it is the
poet; he it is who makes the truest use of the pine, - who does not
fondle it with an axe, nor tickle it with a saw, nor stroke it with a
plane, - who knows whether its heart is false without cutting into it, -
who has not bought the stumpage of the township on which it stands. All
the pines shudder and heave a sigh when that man steps on the forest
floor. No, it is the poet, who loves them as his own shadow in the air,
and lets them stand. I have been into the lumber-yard, and the
carpenter's shop, and the tannery, and the lampblack-factory, and the
turpentine clearing; but when at length I saw the tops of the pines
waving and reflecting the light at a distance high over all the rest of
the forest, I realized that the former were not the highest use of the
pine. It is not their bones or hide or tallow that I love most. It is
the living spirit of the tree, not its spirit of turpentine, with which
I sympathize, and which heals my cuts. It is as immortal as I am, and
perchance will go to as high a heaven, there to tower above me still./"
Another reader provided a paper on using carbon isotopes in Baobab’s to
reconstruct the last 1,000 years of climate in southern Africa. That
citation is: S. Woodborne et al. 2015. A 1000-year carbon isotope
rainfall proxy record from South African Baobab trees (Adansonia
digitate L.). PLOS One (DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0124202).Although not
directly related to my questions, I am planning on using the fact that
tree rings played a significant role in allowing Michael Mann to
construct his climate change hockey stick graph.So they can be valued
for helping in climate change research.
Howie Neufeld
--
Dr. Howard S. Neufeld, Professor
Director, Southern Appalachian Environmental Research and Education Center
(SAEREC)
Chair, Appalachian Interdisciplinary Atmospheric Research Group (AppalAIR)
Mailing Address:
Department of Biology
572 Rivers St.
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
Tel: 828-262-2683; Fax 828-262-2127
Websites:
Academic: http://biology.appstate.edu/faculty-staff/104
Personal: http://www.appstate.edu/~neufeldhs/index.html
SAEREC: http://saerec.appstate.edu
AppalAIR: http://appalair.appstate.edu
Fall Colors:
Academic: http://biology.appstate.edu/fall-colors
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FallColorGuy
