Redwood Reader

Most protection of rural lands is based on species protection, recreation and landscape preservation. While these are important issues, larger issues demand our attention and response. This is true in the case of a warming climate that threatens modern society in several ways. Popular Science (www.popsci.com) ran an article last month on the technological fixes for sequestering carbon through an array of expensive and mostly unproven high tech methods. It was portrayed as too big an issue for individuals to take on- until new science showed us the way.
All through the nineties we were told that carbon from trees was all released back into the atmosphere once the tree was cut- eventually the slash, roots and lumber will all oxidize and return CO2 to the air, creating a no net gain situation concerning trees for storing carbon. This was at the heart of European and Commonwealth attempts to enter the carbon market and a major U.S. objection to it.
A fine example of why old trees are needed comes from Greenbelt Consulting website for restoration in Puget Sound. The article Hydraulic Distribution and Tree Roots http://www.greenbeltconsulting.com/ctp/hydraulicredistribute.html written as a letter from the Forest Service to the Plan writer goes into some picture of the need for deep (>2 meter) roots for maintaining daily intake throughput the dry season for western conifers. This is one of our core issues. A good question may be whether woody roots are mycorhizzia at depth, and how much glomalin is down there. Mykoweb (www.mykoweb.com) reports an average Douglas fir has about one million needles and just as many mycorhizzia. The crown covers about an acre of total coverage. Thus mature trees must generate a large amount of carbon products just to maintain the fungi. Total soil carbon is greater than anticipated and more dynamic than recognized. Second growth cannot match this capture and forests will experience steady decline until it becomes part of the institutional understanding.
The 1996 discovery of glomalin shows us trees and associated fungi do the same job with far more benefits than any of the other methods. This is because glomalin is the sequestered product of vegetative systems, is made mostly of CO2 and water with an iron containing protein, that sequesters metals, conditions soils to hold more water, and persists in the soil for decades after tree cutting, although not permanently.
A decade after the discovery we find Nature publishing a new article about the inability of plants to sequester carbon. They had plenty of variety in their set up and control but failed to measure total production because glomalin is not included in the final analysis, as reported in the Pioneer Press (http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/news/local/14326175.htm ) on April 12, 2006. There is lots of evidence fertilizing slows mycorhizzia activity since there is less need for foraging for minerals and thus would actually decrease total productivity. It is stunning so much time has elapsed and funding is available for studies that ignore recognition of new science. Last year I wrote Nature about the need for their editors to come up to speed on this simple discovery, yet they continue to publish far off the mark articles that keep people from thinking they can do something on global pollution issues. Even CO2 Science magazine (http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V9/N15/B2.jsp)in Four Decades of Russian Forest Growth is slow to pick up on this critical component, adding it to the Subject Index but not seeing it for its importance or how it allows us to approach several seemingly intractable problems or provide insight into new or ongoing studies.
Scientists are finding more difficult processes are performed by Nature with far less energy and hazards than their man-made counterparts. The study of this is called biometrics. In a sense glomalin activity in the soil is similar to baking without heat, in that pockets are created in solid material, and loose ingredients are consolidated into a continuum- in this case, the landscape. Reports of hillsides swelling in rain from Redwood Sciences Lab reports tells us the precipitation interface acts like bread absorbing water when rewetted to the point of the weight causing dissolution. We also can see Nature has a method of removing excess carbon from the air in a way that benefits all its denizens.
If we picture a mature forest as having deposited residue in the ground for many years, with many individuals contributing to a pool of the material, we can see why select cuts are far less damaging than clear cuts. We only have to look at the effects of a century of select cutting and compare them to clear cuts and their impact on fisheries. Select cuts allow other individuals to contribute to the pool. Clear cuts remove glomalin sources and decline begins in the woods. Mattias Rilligs work shows us higher percentages of glomalin are deposited through the deepest roots. Redwood Sciences lab tells us vegetative cover returns to full coverage within ten years. The big question was- why do we have landslides decades after tree felling even after the surface appears stabilized? The answer is that deeper layers of glomalin decay before the new roots can reach the depths of the old deposits, and they slowly decompose until no soil glue remains. When the soil glue is gone soil reverts to inorganic granules that are easily mobilized in wet weather or gravity.
This is the point of separation from restoration because we need to move into how we will manage those recovered lands. How do we encourage growing large trees that won’t be cut for timber? How do we protect the floor? What are we willing to sacrifice for economic opportunity?
Deposition of glomalin is the main function of individual trees in the forest. In their symbiotic relationship with fungi they enhance their environment and lay the foundation for all other forest processes and species. In and of itself this is a great beneficial advantage, but there is more to come. Dissolution of glomalin, a nearly global presence in vascular plants, has been the hallmark of the Industrial Revolution, particularly agriculture and development. While the causes of glomalin destruction are well known, no one has done a study on the cumulative effects of the impacts of tilling such a large percentage of the earths surface. Nevertheless we can now be proactive about global warming by taking local steps. And those steps enhance our local natural systems once thought to be a mystery of Nature.