Ancient trees—some dating back more than 3000 years—are key to the survival of their forests. Learn more on WorldEnvironmentDay:
About 800 years ago, a giant oak tree in England’s Sherwood Forest helped shelter Robin Hood from the corrupt sheriff of Nottingham. Though the tale is likely a myth, the tree is not: It still stands as one of the world’s oldest oaks.
Together, the research suggests conservationists should do more to protect the world’s oldest and rarest trees, says William Laurance, an ecologist at James Cook University, Cairns, who was not involved with the work. Because forests are such important ecosystems—storing carbon, curbing water runoff, and providing food and shelter for many species—such a strategy isn’t just good for the health of the forest ecosystem, he argues, it’s critical for the health of the planet.
Cannon and colleagues decided to define a forest’s most venerable trees as those 10 to 20 times older than their brethren. They used statistics to predict how many ancient trees they would expect to find in forests with different tree death rates. Unlike animals, which tend to have specific life spans, trees can grow indefinitely until felled by lightning, fire, chainsaws, or disease. So, using forest death rates ranging from 0.
When annual death rates exceed 3%, no trees make it to an “ancient” age, he found. When mortality hovers between 1% and 2%,That could be bad news because these trees harbor genes critical to the survival of the entire forest, Cannon says. Ancient trees may contain DNA that makes them less likely to be toppled by wind, for example, or more resistant to fungal diseases.
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