#tree

Azteca alfari Ants "Heal" Wounds in the Tree They Live in to Repair Damage to Their HomeWhen Panamanian high schooler Alex Wcislo shot a 9-millimeter clay ball through a Cecropia tree, he was surprised to find that, in less than 24 hours, the wound had completely closed up. The patchers were none other than Azteca alfari ants who happened to live in the tree.That incidental finding led Wcislo and his school friends to conduct an experiment where they drilled holes in the trees and observed that the damage was repaired by the ants.This showcases an example of the symbiotic relationship between Azteca alfari ants and their tree dwellings. These ants will often use material found in the plant stem to repair holes left by the toenails of sloths and anteaters, especially if the wound puts the colony's brood at risk. In return, the tree receives antimicrobial secretions around its wound.Wcislo and his friends published their findings in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research.Image:Bruno de Medeiros/iNaturalist#ant #tree #symbiosis

Recreating a Lost Generation of Ancient Trees for Biological DiversityTrees can live thousands of years if they aren't cut down for wood or to clear the land, and no matter how many trees we plant, we cannot replenish the supply of thousand-year-old trees. As useful as young trees are, a tree near the end of its life is uniquely essential to the world's biodiversity. An example is Big Belly Oak, a 1100-year-old tree in England's Savernake Forest.While an ancient tree like this is impressive at a distance, take a look inside and you will see something even more intriguing.Oak polypore fungi and stag beetle larvae feast on the dead heartwood, adult stag beetles sup the sugary liquid from the "sap runs", the living layers of wood which transport water and minerals throughout the tree. Hover flies lay eggs in water-filled rot holes, rat-tailed maggots devour leaf litter and violet click beetles eat up wood mould that is rich with faeces and other remains, accumulating over a century. Knothole moss and pox lichen cling to the bark in rainwater channels. Barbastelle bats hibernate in crevices and under loose bark. Woodpeckers and nuthatch enlarge holes for nesting, while owls, kestrels, marsh tit and tree-creeper move in to ready-made cavities. These rich pockets of life are a secret world, a diverse habitat teeming with insects, fungi, lichen, birds and bats. The ancients of our forests provide essential food and shelter for more than 2,000 of the UK's invertebrates species. In Savernake Forest alone, these trees are home to nearly 120 species of lichen, more than 500 species of fungi, and other important wildlife such as the elusive white-letter hairstreak butterflies.Such trees fill environmental niches around the world. But while we can't plant ancient trees, conservationists from several different organizations have developed techniques for artificially aging trees for the purpose of supporting these other species. At least one technique ages a tree 100 years in just two years time. Read how this may work to recreate ancient natural ecosystemsat BBC Future. -via TYWKIWDBI #tree #environment #habitat #ecosystem

How Fast Can A Bear Climb a Tree?Think that you can get away from a bear by climbing a tree? Think again!A black bear can climb a tree in mere seconds. Actually, perhaps 'climb' isn't the correct word here, the bear simply runs up the tree! Then, it goes down just as fast.#bear #blackbear #tree #climbing #treeclimbingView the full video clip below:

The Avatar Tree Glows at Night with Bioluminescent MushroomAmateur mushroom enthusiast Taylor Lockwood (who was recently profiled in this fascinating NPR article) took a time-lapse video of this otherworldly glowing rainforest tree:"Somewhere in the mountains of Costa Rica, there's a tree that the locals call the Avatar Tree, which by day might look much like any other rainforest tree, but by night shows that it's covered by glowing green bioluminescent mycelium ..."#mushroom #TaylorLockwood #Avatar #GlowInTheDark #mycelium #tree #timelapseView the full video clip:

Tree Chopped in Half in Show of "Traditional British Pettiness"An argument between neighbors in South Yorkshire, England, over birds nesting in a tree led to this poor conifer's buzzcut. The pic has since gone viral:A tree cleaved in half has become an attraction in a residential part of South Yorkshire after a dispute between neighbours.Bharat Mistry said he and his family were “gutted” when their next-door neighbours asked tree surgeons to cut down half the branches of a 5 metre conifer tree that had stood in his garden in the Sheffield suburb of Waterthorpe for 25 years.He said: “We were absolutely distraught. We pleaded and pleaded with them not to do it, but their mind was made up. That tree was coming down.”...The picture went viral after it was anonymously sent in to Jeremy Vine’s Channel 5 TV show, and it has been turned into memes on social media, prompting visits from curious people.Mistry’s daughter said the family had become “Instagram famous without meaning to”.Image: Bharat Mistry/Matthew Lofthouse/SWNS#tree #neighborlydispute #England