Trees and water

[diazotrophicus]

Hi,

trees are the key to living landscapes, supporting life in all its forms.

 

Slow is the answer:

Slow down wind, slow down water, speed up plant life, including trees.

 

Agroforestry is one good method, but certain forage legumes in combination (intercropping) with a motley crew of weeds will help.

 

Here is one example of a man in India who made his vision come true. His name is Abdul Kareem.

Abdul Kareem regenerates a forest in Kerala.

 

A more general approach has been described by Mr.. Yeomans from and for Australia and the rest of the world:

P

 

And another tale of practical success in restoring degraded soil, from Brazil (English):

Recovering degraded soils

 

diazotrophicus

[HydrogenBond]

What is interesting about trees and plants is they can fix or confine water better than just soil alone. The potentials generated by cells, which occur at the level of hydrogen bonding, make water harder to evaporate. In other words, if we had just pure water, the hydrogen bonds need to be broken before the water can evaporate. These same hydrogen bonds are now even stronger requiring more energy slowing the evaporation.

[freeztar]

Trees are extremely efficient conveyors of water.

 

A fully grown tree may lose several hundred gallons (a few cubic meters) of water through its leaves on a hot, dry day. About 90% of the water that enters a plant's roots is used for this process. The transpiration ratio is the ratio of the mass of water transpired to the mass of dry matter produced; the transpiration ratio of crops tends to fall between 200 and 1000 (i.e., crop plants transpire 200 to 1000 kg of water for every kg of dry matter produced) (Martin, Leonard & Stamp 1976, p. 81).

Transpiration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

In times of drought, a tree may start a root abandonment similar to how branches die and fall off, but driven by a different process (in this case water). This can be disastrous if the root abandonment is enough to cause the tree to topple during a heavy storm.

 

Trees are extremely adaptive to water resources.

From Mangroves, to Siberian Firs, to Joshua Trees, trees are a living model/example of water conservation. May we learn more from them.

[Michaelangelica]

Do the moderators want to put the thread "Planting Trees a good thing; a bad thing" here?

[diazotrophicus]

Trees are extremely efficient conveyors of water.

 

Transpiration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

Trees are extremely adaptive to water resources.

From Mangroves, to Siberian Firs, to Joshua Trees, trees are a living model/example of water conservation. May we learn more from them.

 

Hi,

the cooling effect of trees is well known, stemming from the latent heat absorbed (about 2600 Joule per gram of water at room temperature) during evaporation.But trees can do a lot more than that, accessing water deep down, raising the ground water table, and even distribute water downwards for times of drought.

 

Prof. Dawson from Berkeley has done some very interesting studies on that.

 

One of my favorite trees is Faidherbia albida, which has shown tremendous improvements of harvests and soil and water levels in West Africa (Burkina Faso).

diazotrophicus

01.11.2006 - Deep-rooted plants have much greater impact on climate than experts thought

In Niger, Trees and Crops Help Turn Back the Desert - Temoust - Survie touarègue

Faidherbia albida

[Michaelangelica]

I once had a water-diviner come to my farm and point out that there was a line of 50' gums in a mile long line, just under the ridge line.

He said that if a tree is 50' high the roots would be 50' deep and tapping into an under-gound water supply.

 

On the 'Recovering degraded soils' link

Have al ook at "wee beasties in the Terra preta sub-forum

http://hypography.com/forums/terra-preta.html

 

I will read your links and get back to this discussion.

[freeztar]

I once had a water-diviner come to my farm and point out that there was a line of 50' gums in a mile long line, just under the ridge line.

 

A diviner eh?

 

I'll assume that the ridge line is on the south side of the higher elevation feature. Water can be found in the desert on the shaded side of geologic features. Sometimes a depth of 6 feet is all that is necessary to provide sustenance. Hence, the trees love the available (and relatively shallow) water suppy.

 

He said that if a tree is 50' high the roots would be 50' deep and tapping into an under-gound water supply.

 

I'm searching my mind for such a tree and cannot think of one example. Tree roots are advantageously horizontal rather than vertical (for stability and balance). Hence, a 50' tall tree could have roots down to a depth of only 25', but with a breadth of 60' (some trees can and do extend way further than 25', but I'm just throwing numbers out there for example). Perhaps this is confused with the often assumed "50% above, 50% below". An even distribution of mass is a much more likely situation compared to vertical symmetry along the horizon.

[Michaelangelica]

A diviner eh?

 

I'll assume that the ridge line is on the south side of the higher elevation feature. Water can be found in the desert on the shaded side of geologic features. Sometimes a depth of 6 feet is all that is necessary to provide sustenance. Hence, the trees love the available (and relatively shallow) water suppy.

It was actually on the Norht side.

But I do live in the S. hemisphere

 

 

 

I'm searching my mind for such a tree and cannot think of one example. Tree roots are advantageously horizontal rather than vertical (for stability and balance). Hence, a 50' tall tree could have roots down to a depth of only 25', but with a breadth of 60' (some trees can and do extend way further than 25', but I'm just throwing numbers out there for example). Perhaps this is confused with the often assumed "50% above, 50% below". An even distribution of mass is a much more likely situation compared to vertical symmetry along the horizon.

Sorry, I don't know enough to help.

I am just reporting what the diviner said.

It seems amazing but not impossible

[diazotrophicus]

A diviner eh?

 

I'll assume that the ridge line is on the south side of the higher elevation feature. Water can be found in the desert on the shaded side of geologic features. Sometimes a depth of 6 feet is all that is necessary to provide sustenance. Hence, the trees love the available (and relatively shallow) water suppy.

 

 

 

I'm searching my mind for such a tree and cannot think of one example. Tree roots are advantageously horizontal rather than vertical (for stability and balance). Hence, a 50' tall tree could have roots down to a depth of only 25', but with a breadth of 60' (some trees can and do extend way further than 25', but I'm just throwing numbers out there for example). Perhaps this is confused with the often assumed "50% above, 50% below". An even distribution of mass is a much more likely situation compared to vertical symmetry along the horizon.

 

Hi,

different trees have different types of roots. Some have deep tap roots, like Faidherbia albida, reaching down fifty meters and more, other trees have rather shallow root systems, some have a combination of both, like Pongamia pinnata (karanj in India), whose roots dive down ten meters (thirty feet) and spread out sideways twenty meters, just to get hold of every molecule of water and minerals (I avoid the misleading word "nutrients").

 

The ideal combination is intercropping of all types of root systems.

 

A good example (not trees) is time-staged planting of Stylosanthes (Campo Grande) and six weeks later of Xaraés (Brachiaria brizantha) on degraded pastures in the Cerrado of Brazil.

 

Stylosanthes has deep tap roots and grows very fast, while Xaraés has shallow roots (one foot) and grows to five feet above ground within six weeks or so. And this intercropping system stays lush and green even during the usual five month drought period there. So no fires to reset vegetation to almost zero every year. Plus an increase of cattle production (fourfold or more per hectare) with ever increasing fertility of the soil. See at managingwholes.net or do a search for ley farming at the site of Keith Addison. It works!

 

And planting Malva silvestris together with berry bushes used to be standard a few decades ago, almost forgotten now.

 

And in Brazil they import Centrosema pubescens from Australia because this plant takes up moisture from the air and transports the water down into the root zone, see under "hydraulic redistribution".

 

This effect had been discovered around 1925 on a rubber tree plantation in Java by van der Meulen, but again almost forgotten. And Pueraria phaseoloides (Pueraria javanica) can do the same thing. Not to be mixed up with Pueraria lobata, well known in the USA as kudzu. Different plant!

 

There is lots of knowledge in this world, and the internet can help to spread this info globally and very fast. Thanks to Basic English or even Pidgin. If only more people would care to use the botanical names (sort of Greek Latin).

 

Today I spent half an hour to find out that the Kachere tree from Malawi is Ficus natalensis. Very useful tree there.

diazotrophicus

[Michaelangelica]

diazotrophicus

And in Brazil they import Centrosema pubescens from Australia because this plant takes up moisture from the air and transports the water down into the root zone, see under "hydraulic redistribution".

How amazing!!

Is this true?

 

Not really at tree?

Native to:

Central America and Mexico up to latitude 22ºN, also in Colombia (Llanos Orientales).

Uses/applications

 

Grazed pastures in mixture with a grass, legume -only protein bank, cut-and-carry. Potential also as soil cover.

Factsheet - Centrosema pubescens

[freeztar]

How amazing!!

Is this true?

 

Thanks for reviving the thread M!

 

Diaz's post was lost in the heap and I need to research some of those foreign species to judge the extent of "water play".

 

Nonetheless, discussions of deep taproots need to be accompanied by soil data. For instance, it's much easier for roots to plow through sand than clay. Every plant is suited for a particular environment. I look forward to researching the species offered by D and hopefully finding a correlation with soil type.

 

Dia? You still there? :eek:

[Michaelangelica]

A lot of "old timers" in Oz say the roots of a gum are as high as the gum

[diazotrophicus]

A lot of "old timers" in Oz say the roots of a gum are as high as the gum

 

Hi,shoulder hurt will write soon

diazo

[Michaelangelica]

Take a few minutes to look at this.

It's nice, my daughter sent it to me

Nice quotes nice pics.

In the Time of Trees - Photo Essays - TIME