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Eastern hemlocks are deteriorating. A Little Fly Can Save Them

Dry forests are made up of many species of trees that shed leaves every winter – oak, birch, ash, maple, poplar. The ash tree is rare in dry forests – because it has been killed by emerald ash, perhaps – some vegetable trees are over-killed. Hemlock forests are controlled by a single species of tree. It grows in large, immovable green rocks that are durable 365 days a year. When hemlock is missing in the hemlock forest, not much is left.

Hemlocks are color-coded, meaning that they play a key role in shaping the environment. Their main ingredient is the deep shade they create. Only a portion of the sun’s rays penetrating the hemlock’s roof can reach the forest floor. The tree branches of the tree drop to the ground instead of raising the light, forming a smooth dome. The temperature under the green tent can be 10 degrees Fahrenheit higher than the outside world at the top of the tree and 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit below.

In winter, tents are a source of protection. Deer congregate around the hemlock branches, sheltered from the snow that accumulate under the leafless trees. Leaven grouse and owl closed the nest at the top of the hemlock. Snow snaps on its green branches. The squirrel bites on its heavy bark. In the summer, when the sun dries up and melts snow and ice somewhere, the hemlock keeps the snow on their trunks, which slowly reach the rivers and streams nearby and keep it afloat. Brook trout relies on ice-cold water, as do many species of salamander, frog, toad, and flies.

People do that, too, even though they don’t know it. Hemlocks use water very carefully than hardy tree species because its large branches produce cold and cold microclimates. “If you have hemlocks on the banks of rivers lined with hardwoods that use a lot of water, you can dry the rivers, in the summer,” said Orwig, a Harvard Forest biologist. These rivers are used for swimming, fishing, and recreation, much of the northeast local identity. And regardless of where they grow up, hemlocks provide the financial and physical benefits that people enjoy. A learning A study that saw hemlock decline between Connecticut and Massachusetts over five years in nine states saw a $ 105 million decline in prices.

“Most people just look at hemlocks like this green thing,” Whitmore, from Cornell, said. “But then you’re adding to that and you’re seeing all sorts of important environmental factors that are related to the cold and the climate it creates.”

And hemlocks are not really good for critics and neighbors. They are also ready to absorb carbon dioxide.

Hemlocks can absorb about 12 tons of carbon dioxide per two and a half acres, depending on a 2002 survey which compared hemlock with other tree species. It’s an extra CO2 than oak trees and ponderosa pines this study highlighted. But fur adelgid can convert hemlocks from carbon to carbon sources. This happened back in 2014 at Harvard Forest. The researchers wrote a pen that began to produce carbon instead of pollen. “The forest can be a source of carbon if it loses its hemlock,” said Orwig, who co-authored the article. 2020 Study, he said.

Harvard before learning showed that the woolly adelgid could bite 8% of the forest in the northeast of the forest between 2000 and 2040. of the dead and the dead hemlock – archaeologists have already found it in the forests of the Northeast. Back in 2040, a Harvard study estimated that black birches will hold 12% More more carbon than the hemlocks that were replaced. But in the near future, a 8% reduction in carbon consumption is a major factor, says Audrey Barker Plotkin, a senior scientist at Harvard Forest who has spent years studying how aggressive forces affect hemlocks.


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