Article #12 1/14/13
Hannah Waters. "City Trees Grow Faster, But Seedlings Struggle to Take Root." Scientific American.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/culturing-science/2013/01/14/city-tree-growth/
Topic: Plants
This article talks about how coniferous trees located in U.S Pacific Northwest urban areas are growing more quickly than rural trees but are producing less seeds. This is a positive thing for the present and the near future but unfortunately this is not good in the long run for the urban forest ecosystems. The two environments, urban and rural were compared and it was found that both the air temperature and soil nitrogen were higher in the city, which allowed the trees to have a longer growing time. There are several reasons why seedlings don't grow well in urban areas, such as a decrease in soil moisture and the destruction of seeds due to human disruption (being stepped on). It could also be that the trees in urban areas are too young to produce many seeds.
I chose this article because I originally thought that trees in the city would grow slower since the environment was so different from their natural habitats and also there is a lot of human interference with urban trees. After reading the article I found that it was actually these differences in environment that allowed the trees to grow faster.
Topic: Plants
This article talks about how coniferous trees located in U.S Pacific Northwest urban areas are growing more quickly than rural trees but are producing less seeds. This is a positive thing for the present and the near future but unfortunately this is not good in the long run for the urban forest ecosystems. The two environments, urban and rural were compared and it was found that both the air temperature and soil nitrogen were higher in the city, which allowed the trees to have a longer growing time. There are several reasons why seedlings don't grow well in urban areas, such as a decrease in soil moisture and the destruction of seeds due to human disruption (being stepped on). It could also be that the trees in urban areas are too young to produce many seeds.
I chose this article because I originally thought that trees in the city would grow slower since the environment was so different from their natural habitats and also there is a lot of human interference with urban trees. After reading the article I found that it was actually these differences in environment that allowed the trees to grow faster.