Trees That Survived California Drought May Hold Clue To Climate Resilience

Sommer, Lauren. (2019, October 19). Trees That Survived California Drought May Hold Clue To Climate Resilience. Retrieved November 11, 2019, from https://www.npr.org/2019/10/16/76 6200948/trees-that-survived-california-drought-may-hold-clue-to-climate-resilience

 

During California’s drought, a lot of trees died from the lack of water, combined with an inability to produce resin to fend of beetles. However, the ones that did survive, the ‘super trees’, did more with less water that they received, which has led scientists to grow large numbers of their offspring in nurseries and plant them, replacing the trees that didn’t survive. This same approach is being directed towards coral reefs- the corals that are more resilient to bleaching or warmer waters get their offspring with the same characteristics grown in labs. It’s hoped that these more hardy corals will create ‘super reefs’ that aren’t wiped out by global warming. 

 

The ideas being exhibited in this article are really interesting, I certainly hadn’t considered focusing on the plants themselves as opposed to the cause of what is killing them, like most people seem to be. So far, I should think it’s been successful, but the article didn’t elaborate on how well it was working. This would be related to environmental science because climate change is a serious problem, and the effects that it’s had on plants in different environments has been pretty devastating. It’s encouraging to see people working to address some of the problems associated with it in such creative ways.

 

3 thoughts on “Trees That Survived California Drought May Hold Clue To Climate Resilience

  1. That is interesting. It’s like humans guiding natural selection a little bit. Probably not our first time. It shows a different approach to the problem- defending wildlife. Do you think the approach could happen on a wider scale? Selective breeding of other things (ie- heat resistant polar bears???)

    • Hey, thanks for reading my review! That’s a really interesting idea about enlarging the scale of selective breeding. However, how much can humans ‘play god’ until we cause more problems? (I’m generally thinking along the lines of if we breed heat-resistant polar bears, how does one go about doing that in such a way that it doesn’t impact the skills that they need to survive in that environment? If the climate gets restored, all of a sudden we’ve got a ton of polar bears that can’t handle weather that’s too cold, or something like that).
      In general, I think we should stick with plants. Selective breeding could offer a potential solution, but we don’t know how or if it’ll come back to haunt us in the future in such organisms that are subject to more flexibility than trees.

  2. This is very interesting because I do agree with you and how climate change is so harmful for our environment and how its a serious problem. The effects it’s had on the plants is pretty violent. I think its great how society is coming together to solve this problem in such creative ways

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