Trees and the Environment: Another Perspective

© 2022 Michael Graham MSc. All rights reserved.

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Published by AuthorHouse  03/10/2022

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5429-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-5428-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022904584

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Contents

Abbreviations

Abstract

Introduction

Chapter 1     Anatomy of Trees

Chapter 2     History of Trees

Chapter 3     The Impact of Trees

Chapter 4     Trees, Climate Change and Carbon Sequestration

Chapter 5     Destruction of Forests

Chapter 6     Land Use Patterns Across the World

Chapter 7     Agriculture

Chapter 8     Timber

Chapter 9     Mining

Chapter 10   The Impact of Ancient Civilization on Forests and Trees

Chapter 11   Governmental Policies

Chapter 12   Forests Restoration Projects

Chapter 13   Review

Chapter 14   Solutions and Alternative Pathways

References

Abbreviations

Abstract

Plants inclusive of trees have been and continues to be very rich natural resources for humans and the other animals that call Earth home, as they have provided habitat, food and raw material from the beginning of time that both humans and animals have used as such, resources to be used only, however, time and experience is indicating that plants inclusive of trees are more than just very valuable natural resources to be used up and cast aside, as experience and scientific evidence is indicating that plants inclusive of trees are an integral part of the natural environment similar to rocks, soils, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans and the atmosphere. While plants play a very vital role in shaping life on Earth, unfortunately, it appears that until relatively recent times, 300-400 years, even the most advanced human societies appear to lack an appreciation of the importance of trees to the environment, human and animal life and how human and animal activities can negatively impact the ability of trees and plants to continue providing their lifegiving support. Recently uncovered archaeological evidence indicates that places such as the Sahara Desert were once very green and full of life and according to Lloyd (2018) Before the Sahara changed into a desert there were also trees such as ash, cedar, oak, walnut, myrtle and lime in the region. This green and verdant place was destroyed by very early humans to fill their needs for the creation of open fields for agriculture, habitat for humans, monuments of stones glorifying dead men and mining for minerals. With the growth of human population in the region more trees and other natural resources were destroyed to facilitate the necessary expansion in agriculture and habitat building required to meet human needs and the life of flora and fauna in these places diminished and eventually faded away. According to Gavin Schmidt, a NASA Climate Scientist, the cause of Sahara’s desertification was a shift in the earth’s orbit which may have occurred 8-10,000 years ago, however, based on the rate of desertification that is occurring today, without any shift in the earth’s orbit, it is very likely that the change in the Sahara could have occurred due to the same problems that are causing desertification today. The destruction of 3.5 million square miles of well-watered arable land, hundreds of species of animals, trees and plants, the Sahara covers an area of approximately 3.5 million square miles, for the purpose of agriculture, construction and mining over an extended period of time, tens of thousands of years, could easily have led to fragmentation of natural forests resources, desertification, a major change in climatic conditions in the region and eventually the creation of the largest dry desert on the planet.

Current data from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, UN), clearly indicates that this scenario described was quite probable, as according to the FAO An estimated 92,000 hectares of forests and woodlands as well as 2 billion metric tons of fertile soils are lost every year in Ethiopia due to improper land use, poor land management practices, population pressure, overgrazing, deforestation and climate change.

Introduction

The current list of known and accepted plant species consists of 374,000 plants inclusive of 308,312 vascular plants of which 295,383 are flowering plants (angiosperms) and 1079 species of gymnosperms (Christenhusz and Byng 2016). Of these, approximately 60,065 species are trees (Kinver, April 2017, Botanical Gardens Conservation International List of Trees) spread across all land masses, with exception of Antarctica and the Arctic region, inclusive of continents and islands, occupied and unoccupied landmasses, and this presence of trees everywhere indicates a certain special relationship with the planet and the tree inhabitants of the planet. Historical and scientific data indicates that plants predates both animal and human life everywhere on the planet and also that the majority of tree species have a much longer life span than any animal or human, with the Bristle Cone Pine living for as long as 5000 years.

Plants have been and continues to be very rich natural resources for humans and the other animals that call planet Earth home, as they have provided habitat, food and raw material from the beginning of time that both humans and animals have used as such, resources to be used only, however, time and experience is indicating that plants are more than just very valuable natural resources to be used up and cast aside, as experience and scientific evidence is indicating that plants are an integral part of the natural environment similar to rocks, soils, mountains, rivers, lakes, oceans and the atmosphere and also performs some very important roles. While plants play a very vital role in shaping life on Earth, unfortunately, it appears that until in relatively recent times, 300-400 years, even the most advanced human societies appear to lack an appreciation of the importance of trees to the environment, human and animal life and how human and animal activities can negatively impact the ability of plants to continue providing their lifegiving support. Recently uncovered archaeological evidence indicates that places such as the Sahara Desert were once very green and full of life and according to Lloyd (2018) Before the Sahara changed into a desert there were also trees such as ash, cedar, oak, walnut, myrtle and lime in the region. This green and verdant place was destroyed by very early humans to fill their needs for the creation of open fields for agriculture, habitat for humans, grazing for their domesticated animals, monuments of stones glorifying dead men and mining for minerals. With the growth of human population in the region more trees and other natural resources were destroyed to facilitate the necessary expansion in agriculture and the growth in habitat construction to meet human needs, thereby causing the life of flora and fauna in these places to diminish and eventually faded away. According to Gavin Schmidt, a NASA Climate Scientist, the cause of Sahara’s desertification was a shift in the earth’s orbit which may have occurred 8-10,000 years ago, however, based on the rate of desertification that is occurring today, without any shift in the earth’s orbit, it is very likely that the change in the Sahara could have occurred due to the same problems that are causing desertification today. The destruction of 3.5 million square miles of well-watered arable lands, hundreds of species of animals, trees and plants, the Sahara covers an area of approximately 3.5 million square miles, for the purpose of agriculture, construction and mining over an extended period of time, probably tens of thousands of years, could easily have led to fragmentation of natural forests resources, desertification, a major change in climatic conditions in the region and eventually the creation of the largest hot desert on the planet.

Current data from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, UN), clearly indicates that this scenario described was quite probable, as according to the FAO An estimated 92,000 hectares of forest and woodlands as well as 2 billion metric tons of fertile soils are lost every year in Ethiopia due to improper land use, poor land management practices, population pressure, overgrazing, deforestation and climate change. Using Ethiopia’s data, it can be shown that desertification of the Sahara could easily have occurred over a period of 10,000 years without the theoretical shift in the earth’s orbit and according to Kemp (1994) desertification is usually caused by a combination of natural and anthropogenic activities. At a rate of 92,000 hectares per year the loss of forest lands over a 10,000year period would have resulted in the loss of 920,000,000 hectares which is equivalent to 2,272,400,000 acres. The Sahara Desert is 3.5 million square miles which is equivalent to (3,500,000 x 640) 2,240,000,000 acres and any higher rate of loss would have seen the destruction happening in even shorter spans of time.

The harm caused to forests due to the use of the land for agriculture, while absolutely necessary to feed humans, became significantly worse with the rapid growth in human populations as this growth would have required the stripping and clearing of even more lands to meet the nutritional needs of the increasing number of humans. In addition to the trees destroyed to facilitate agriculture, trees were also destroyed to support mining and smelting of metals, the construction of human shelters and the construction of large monuments and temples made from stone, masonry, fired bricks and sundried bricks, with the monuments and temples dedicated to dead men and religions. Trees or tree products were used in all phased of the construction of the big monuments and by all logical assumptions, timber, a product of trees, must have been used to transport the millions of tons of stones that were required to construct and also to build the support systems that were required to raise very heavy stones hundreds of feet into the air, as in the case of the tallest pyramid Khufu at Giza, Egypt (the Great Pyramid) which stood at a height of 481 feet 3 inches when it was completed. These great stone monuments of Egypt, pyramids, monuments and temples, are today worshipped as great works worthy of commendations by the whole world without anyone giving any thought to the millions of trees that were destroyed to create lifeless, useless stone monuments to glorify narcissistic dead men and the same applies to all great monuments around the world that have been built from the most ancient times until today whose functional use is at best questionable.

Desertification, one of the major environmental problems, in almost all hot regions usually begins with the depletion of trees, followed by the curtailment of the hydrologic cycle, followed by the drying out of soils and consequently the relocation of soils by wind and water forces. This loss of trees, plants and water resources would naturally force the relocation of most species of animals and the humans that were dependent on these species of plants and animals, thereby completing the process of the creation of places like the great Sahara Desert. Unfortunately, this sequence of failures appears to have completely escaped the notice of the human occupants of the Sahara region, as it appears that they may have just moved on to other locations which they consequently destroyed as well, continuing a destructive cycle. This pattern of activities was followed by humans all over the world in many different places, inclusive of the Americas, China, Australia, Mesopotamia, India and Pakistan, wherever most hot desert exists, and continued on for many centuries on into modern societies,16th -21st century, with nations depleting most of their trees for agriculture, implements of war, transportation inclusive of shipping, trucking and rail, manufacturing, paper production and the construction of buildings for residential, commercial and institutional purposes.

Historically, many nations depleted their own stock of trees, after which they were forced to acquire wood products to meet all their needs from their neighbors or faraway places, from friend or foe, through means fair or foul. The path taken would depend on the size of the nation in need and its capacity to make war on its neighbors or having the necessary financial resources to purchase required material, however, quite often the resources of their smaller and weaker neighbors was usually taken by force leading to wars, more weapon building, more ship building and consequently the destruction of even more forests and trees. The trees from lands from much further away and from bigger nations would usually be obtained through trade which also required the destruction of more trees to build ships to transport the acquired material. This destruction of trees by humans without any recourse to replanting for extended periods of human history was in direct contradiction to the human approach to animals and other necessary food resources that humans depended on in their transition away from the hunter-gatherer life style, as humans had begun to domesticate certain animals and crops and had successfully developed practices to replenish these animals and crops on an annual cycle or as frequently as possible, yet these same humans made very little or no effort to regrow the trees that were destroyed to create agricultural fields, build houses and build monuments. This lack of thought and effort could be attributed to many things inclusive of the time required to grow a tree to maturity and to the absence of knowledge about the real importance of trees, especially on the global scale. But in general, the main cause of the failure were the policies of early humans that made them focus only on their immediate needs and far less on the future, which given the levels of development in most places could be considered excusable. The policy makers in early human history were head of families, village priests and various types of monarchy, people who lacked an appreciation of things outside of their immediate locations, the lasting impact of human activities on the environment and over all the larger picture of life on Earth. The policies made by these people would include such things as what crop to plant, the location of the plot of land to be used, the source of water for irrigation, who would plant, reap and store the crops. Unfortunately, even with greater increases in knowledge and levels of development this pattern continued even after many great renaissance periods, industrial revolutions, social revolutions and many other human social changes and transformations throughout history.

CHAPTER

1

Anatomy of Trees

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a tree is a woody perennial plant having a single usually elongated main stem generally with few or no branches on its lower part or is a shrub or herb of arborescent form such as rose trees or banana trees. This makes trees a member of the plant kingdom and they are in fact the giants of the plant world standing anywhere from a few inches tall, Dwarf Willow (Salix Herbacea), which is adapted to survive in arctic and sub-arctic regions of the world inclusive of the North Atlantic, North-East Asia, Northern Europe, Greenland and Eastern Canada, to the nearly 400 feet tall, Hyperion, Sequoia Sempervirens or Coast Redwood, which are concentrated in the California region of the American Pacific North West coast. At the highest heights 350 plus feet Trees are the tallest self-supporting organisms in the world Gul et al (2017).

Anatomy of Trees: The basic anatomy of a tree consists of roots, trunks, limbs, branches, twigs and leaves (foliage), buds, blossoms and fruits or seeds and according to Bales (2012) trees are made up leaves – 5%, limbs - 15%, trunk – 60%, woody roots – 15% and absorbing roots – 5%.

Roots

The roots are structurally the foundation of the tree as they connects the tree to the ground and supports the vertical loads transferred from all parts of the crown and the trunk and they also provide structural lateral support and resistance for the tree against strong winds and all forms of horizontal loads that may impact a tree. The roots also have the responsibility for absorbing and transferring nutrients and water from the soil to the crown to ensure the continued growth and maturity of the tree during all stages of the plant’s life, the growing, fruit bearing and the declining years of the plant. While all plants have roots, the roots of all plants are not identical and will differ according to the specie of the plants and trees and are divided into two main groups monocotyledon roots and dicotyledon roots and are further subdivided into another two categories, namely primary and adventitious roots. Mono and di refers to the number of cotyledons, seed leaves, in the seed of a plant with monocotyledons have one cotyledon and dicotyledons having two cotyledons. Dicotyledon roots usually refers to the root systems that are associated with trees and are usually called primary and adventitious roots. Monocotyledon roots refer to the fibrous roots systems associated with the grass family inclusive of grain crops, vegetables, bamboo, sugar cane, banana and the palm family, all of which have adventitious roots which usually grow from the stem of the plant.

Primary Roots

The primary root, the first root developed by a plant grows in the opposite direction to the stem, which grows upward towards the sky, going down into the soil to different levels based on the type of soil, clay, sandy or a mixture and the hardness or softness of the soil. The primary root in gymnosperms and dicotyledons usually forms and develops as a tap root from which several lateral branching roots with root hairs will grow creating the tap root system that all such plants are totally dependent upon. The functions of the primary roots include anchoring of the plant to the earth, absorbing water and nutrients from the soil and acting as a storehouse of food material for the plant. The type of roots and how they grow in relation to the tree will be a function of the type of soil, sandy or clay, the depth of the soil and the availability of water and nutrients. The following are all possible:

• The tree may have a one large tap root.

• The tap root will grow lateral or branch roots covered with root hairs

• The sinker roots hold the tree in place

• 20% of the mass of a tree is located underground in the root system.

• Fibrous roots have the greatest responsibility for providing water and nutrients to the tree and consist of 5% of the tree’s mass.

• Fibrous roots extend out 2-3 times the height of the tree, with the total distance being determined by the type of soil, with sandy soil allowing greater width.

• Water and nutrient are taken up by plant roots by the process of osmosis.

• The depths of a tap root system can extend to over 8 feet.

Adventitious Roots

Adventitious roots are usually produced by plants, both monocotyledons and dicotyledons, with a natural disposition to grow adventitious roots such as the grass family of plants inclusive bamboo, banana, sugarcane and the cereal crops and not all plants can produce adventitious roots. The production of adventitious roots occurs naturally in some plants, such as crown roots on cereal plants, while on other plants they are usually triggered by adverse situations and conditions such as flooding, nutrient deprivation and deliberate or accidental wounding of the plant. These adventitious roots usually spring from organs on the stem of the plant above the ground as they do not necessarily require soil to spring and grow. Some features of adventitious roots are as follows:

• There are a set of adventitious plants inclusive of cereal and mangroves which do not need adverse conditions to grow adventitious roots as they produce constitutive adventitious roots naturally and they tend to develop these roots in ordered segments. These plants frequently have segmented stems for the growth of organized adventitious roots.

• Some adventitious plants will only produce adventitious roots in adverse environmental conditions such as flooding, deliberate or unintentional wounding or the absence of adequate water and nutrients.

• Cuttings for propagation from different plants sometimes require different conditions to be successful and example of these are succulent cutting which require just open air to produce roots and devil vine which must be submerged in water.

Trunks

The trunk of the tree act as a natural link between the roots and the crown of the tree and supports the crown literally as a structural member, by storing and transporting food, water and nutrients up and down the tree. The trunk consists of several very important elements that act together to provide the services required by the tree and includes:

• Bark – This is usually the tough outer skin on the tree and usually have different colors and textures depending on the species of the tree. The main function of the bark is to protect the inner cells that are responsible for production of cells, transportation and storage of food.

• Cork Cells- The cork cells are directly below the bark on the inside of the bark and provides secondary protection in the event of damage to the bark.

• Phloem - These are cells that are directly below, on the inside, of the cork cell and they act as the conduit for transporting food produced in the leaves around and down the tree, running from the leaves down to the roots.

• Xylem – These are cells that are located on the inside of the phloem cells that run from the roots of the plant right up to its leaves and which are responsible for the transportation of water and nutrients from the soil up through the tree.

• Cambium – These are the cells that are directly below the phloem cells and are usually only one cell thick. Cambium cells have the responsibility to produce phloem cells for the outside and xylem cells for the inside as both of these cells die and must be regularly replenished to prevent the death of the tree.

• Heartwood – Provides the structural strength of the tree and consist basically of old and non-functional xylem cells.

Crown

The crown is supported by the trunk or stem of the tree and consists of limbs, branches, twigs, leaves, buds and fruits and it is responsible for the overall growth and development of each tree. The limbs, branches and twigs provide the structural framework that supports, the buds, leaves and fruits, while the leaves are responsible, through the process of photosynthesis, for the production of food and energy that fosters the growth and development of the trees and the production of fruits and seeds. the limbs are the portions of the tree that grows out directly from the trunk while the branches are the divisions of limbs and the twigs are the attachments at the tip of the branches. The limbs and branches are anatomically the same as the trunks as they consist of bark, several layers of different cell material and a hardwood core with the major difference being the size and maturity of limbs and branches relative to the trunk with the trunk being the most developed and matured followed by the limbs, branches and twigs.

Limbs, Branches and Twigs

The limbs, branches and twigs are all woody offshoots from the trunk and basically consists of the same materials as the trunk, bark, cork, phloem, xylem, cambium and heartwood as they must all perform the same functions of taking water and nutrients to the leaves and taking glucose and related food products from the leaves to the rest of the tree. The limbs are directly connected to the trunk, while the branches are the divisions that form on the limbs and the twigs are the small tender end points on the branches on which leaves, buds, blossoms and fruits are formed. Structurally the strength in these members is greatest in the limb and reduces going from limb to branches and lowest in the twigs, which must still be fairly strong as the twigs must support the fruits, fruits that can be quite heavy, that the tree produces.

Leaves (Foliage)

Leaves are numerically in great abundance on most trees and they represent a tree’s center of manufacturing, as leaves are where water, nutrient, chlorophyl and sunlight meets to create the starches and sugars that are required for tree growth and the production of fruits, nuts and other edible products. They also provide shade for the tree undergrowth, the creator of undergrowth nurseries for new life forms, both as green leaves on the branch and as dry fallen leaves on the ground, habitat for many species and a tool in the creation of the hydrological system. The basic components of this most important member of most trees and most plants are as follows:

• Leaf Blade. The blades are the center of operation of all leaves as they contain the chemicals and physical infrastructure in which all the processes of photosynthesis occur. The blade typically consists of several components inclusive of cuticle, upper epidermis, lower epidermis, mesophyll -palisade and spongy, veins (xylem and phloem) and stoma.

• Petiole. The petiole is the main structural support of the leaf that connects it to the stem and directly connect to the leaf through the midrib, the main vein of the leaf. The petiole also carries xylem and phloem that connect the leaf to the main vascular system of the tree.

• Veins. The veins form the