Tag

Root System

All articles tagged with #root system

science28 days ago•13 min saved

Pando: Utah’s 14,000-year-old ‘forest of one’ fights to regrow amid deer pressure

Pando is a single male quaking aspen clone spanning 106 acres in Utah’s Fishlake National Forest, consisting of about 47,000 genetically identical stems and a shared root system weighing around 13 million pounds. Its age is uncertain but the root system may be up to 14,000 years old, making it one of the oldest and heaviest organisms on land. The grove is the visible expression of one organism, renewed by roots rather than seeds. Its regeneration now hinges on young shoots surviving browsing by mule deer (and cattle); where fences protect them, recruitment improves, but unprotected areas struggle. Management efforts (fencing, cutting, burning, shrub removal) aim to reduce browsing and allow new stems to mature; without lowering grazing pressure, the clone risks remaining a hollow age structure under its old canopy, rather than becoming a forest again.

via Space Daily|

#clonal-colony #deer-browsing #pando

science1 month ago•5 min saved

The Trembling Giant Speaks: Sounds from Pando, the World’s Largest Living Organism

Researchers captured sounds from Pando, a colossal quaking aspen clone spanning about 100 acres in Utah and weighing around 6,000 tons, possibly 12,000 years old. A hydrophone inside a hollow at a branch’s base picked up vibrations in the tree and its root system, especially during storms, suggesting wind-driven sounds travel through the interconnected network. The project blends art and science to map Pando’s roots and monitor ecosystem health, while researchers warn the ancient organism is deteriorating due to human activity and environmental pressures.

via ScienceAlert|

#biodiversity #hydrophone #pando

science-and-environment2 years ago•3 min saved

Eerie Sounds of Pando: A Clue to Saving the World's Biggest Tree

Sound artist Jeff Rice has recorded the inner workings of Pando, the world's largest tree, using an array of microphones including stethoscopes and hydrophones. The recordings not only provide an artistic representation of the tree's root system but also offer scientific possibilities for understanding and conserving the tree. By mapping the root system through sound, scientists hope to track changes in the ecosystem and identify diseases or stress. This knowledge can help protect and restore Pando, which has survived various challenges throughout its 9,000-year existence.

via Atlas Obscura|

#conservation #pando #root-system

science-and-environment3 years ago•3 min saved

Experience the Majesty of Pando, the World's Largest Living Tree, Through Its Sounds.

Researchers have recorded the sounds of Pando, the world's largest tree, using a hydrophone to capture the rustling of its leaves, birds chirping in the canopy, and critters scampering around. Pando is a single clone comprising approximately 40,000 genetically identical stems interconnected by a complex root system. The underground recordings offer new opportunities to better understand the "trembling giant" in a way that's completely noninvasive, including mapping out Pando's root system, monitoring water flow, and performing wildlife management that may help deter deer from eating the tree, which could hinder its regeneration.

via Yahoo Life|

#aspen-trees #environmental-changes #pando

environment3 years ago•3 min saved

Eerie Recordings of World's Largest Living Thing Unveiled.

Sound artist Jeff Rice has recorded the sounds of Pando, the world's largest living organism, using a hydrophone placed inside a hollow at the base of a branch and threaded down to the tree's roots. The recordings captured the eerie low rumbling of millions of leaves in the forest, vibrating the tree and passing down through the branches, down into the earth. Pando, a forest made of a single tree with 47,000 stems sprouting from a shared root system over 100 acres of Utah, is deteriorating due to human activities, leaving researchers concerned that Pando's days and all the forest life it supports are numbered.

via ScienceAlert|

#ecosystem #environment #pando

science-and-environment3 years ago•3 min saved

"Sound artist captures secrets of world's heaviest organism through eavesdropping"

Sound artist Jeff Rice has used hydrophones to listen to Pando, a vast living entity in Utah thought to be the world's heaviest organism. The 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens are considered to be a single organism, with the "trees" actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system. Rice placed a hydrophone inside a hole at the base of one of the branches, and lowered it down to touch the roots. He recorded the sound of millions of leaves in the forest, vibrating the tree and passing down through the branches, down into the earth.

via The Guardian|

#acoustic-work #organism #pando