Throughout the United States there are many major environmental disturbances that effect the way trees maintain their ability to live. One major disturbance that effects the way trees grow are ice storms. Ice storms can be deadly for many trees but trees also can not be damaged at all because they become resistant to the ice. Almost every year there has been an ice storm that effects part of the northern and eastern United States effecting not only the people that live in that county but also the population of tree species within a forest community. Throughout the years scientists have been studying the effects that ice has on trees. The position of the stand, thickness of the ice, crown structure, and thickness of the wood on the trees are only some of the reasons why certain tree species can withstand the intensity of an ice storm. An ice storm can produce up to 2cm of ice on power lines, telephone poles, and tree limbs.
Many different scientific journals have been written explaining the effects of ice on different tree species. Alan Rebertus and fellow scientists studied storm damage at an old growth hickory forest called dark hollow, following an ice storm that occurred in Northern Missouri on December 6 and 7 of 1994, which produce 4.62 cm of frozen rain coating the trees. 27% of 1386 live trees were damages, 7% severe (Rebertus et al 1997). In 1993 the scientists conducted a pre-storm survey where 30 0.1 ha plots were established, spaced 80 meters apart (Rebertus et al 1997). They recorded the status of the trees whether the tree was dead or alive and crown classes, whether a species was dominant, co-dominate, intermediate, or suppressed. After two years in 1995 a post-storm survey was conducted to see the trees susceptibility following such an intense storm. The trees were put into groups 0,undamaged; 1, light; which was the breakage of small limbs, 2, moderate; which was breakage of small limbs approximately 15 cm thick, 3, servere; which was snapping of major limbs (Rebertus et al 1997).
Sibilla Merian, a German naturalist, author, and illustrator was born in Germany. Frankfurt was a small town in Germany where she was raised. They had a wide family that were either an engraver and or a publisher. After the death of her stepfather that taught her much botony and engraving, she was l...
A seed certainly looks dead. It does not seem to move, to grow, nor do anything. In fact, even with biochemical tests for the metabolic processes we associate with life (respiration, etc.) the rate of these processes is so slow that it would be difficult to determine whether there really was anything alive in a seed. Seeds initially germinate when they absorb water, bursting the seed coat. Heat and light energy necessary for the process of germination. ...
