"Suzanne Simard walks into the forest with a churchgoer’s reverence. The soaring canopies of Douglas firs are her cathedral’s ceiling. Shifting branches of cedars, maples and hemlocks filter the sunlight like stained-glass windows. A songbird chorus echoes from the treetops, accompanied by the wind whistling through pine boughs and a woodpecker’s steady drumming.But beauty alone is not what makes this place sacred to Simard. In each colossal tree, the University of British Columbia forest ecologist sees a source of oxygen, a filter for water and a home for hundreds of different creatures. To her, the lush, multilayered understory is proof of a thriving community, where a variety of species ensures that every wavelength of light is put to good use.And although Simard cannot hear their conversation, she knows the trees are in communion with the fungi beneath her feet — bartering carbon for water and nutrients in a raucous exchange older than the forests themselves."
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/interactive/2022/suzanne-simard-mother-trees-climate/
I did read Suzanne's book - "Finding the Mother Tree" -> https://suzannesimard.com/ The process she worked through to devise her studies to capture the information is well worth the read.
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| Studies have shown that when trees are removed from a landscape, it unleashes the carbon buried below. |
