I hope they don't turn this loose in the Amazon!

[GreyGeek]

http://www.chonday.com/Videos/excamuoich2

[MoonRise]

+1

[SteveRiley]

That was actually a little sickening to watch...

[Qqmike]

Yep, I agree SteveRiley. Especially so when you consider how much DNA we have in common with trees. Trees are real pals in the environment of this crazy world. The City of Albuquerque (hot, dry, water-conserving city) has been telling residents it's OK to let the grass go to h*, use low-water/high-sun plantings if you wish, zero-scaping, BUT do NOT let your trees die--in fact, water them!

[GreyGeek]

Yup. Green things breath in CO2 and suck up water to make sugar and O2. Most living things, including green things, eat the sugar and consume the O2 in their cellular respiration processes. Why favor trees over grass during a water shortage? Because trees tie up the CO2 they absorb by producing wood, while releasing some of the Oxygen. The more wood tied up the more Oxygen released. Wood is generally long lasting. Grass does not produce wood, just sugar, starches and cellulose. When the grass dies, or herbivores eat it, about as much Oxygen is consumed metabolizing it as was released during photosynthesis. The relative photosynthetic surface area of grasses and phytoplankton, while probably much larger than the total area of all tree leaves, is canceled out when decaying or consumed grasses reclaim the nearly all, or more, of the O2 they produced. Trees win when it comes to keeping O2 in the atmosphere. When trees win, we win.

[Qqmike]

GG, that's interesting stuff to know. Must admit, I skipped those courses as a student obsessing about math-physics courses. Now wish I knew more anatomy, physiology, biology, life sciences, and the rest. Which you can--and I am--trying to read up on, thanks to the Internet (and Amazon!).

[GreyGeek]

GG, that's interesting stuff to know. Must admit, I skipped those courses as a student obsessing about math-physics courses. Now wish I knew more anatomy, physiology, biology, life sciences, and the rest. Which you can--and I am--trying to read up on, thanks to the Internet (and Amazon!).

You are probably aware of it, but Kahn Academy is becoming a great source for about all info, from kindergarten through college.
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology

[MoonRise]

That was actually a little sickening to watch...

I agree with you on that! It really was!!

[HalationEffect]

Just be sure to kill all that nasty invasive kudzu - the stuff causes more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere than it uses.

[GreyGeek]

Just be sure to kill all that nasty invasive kudzu - the stuff causes more CO2 to be released into the atmosphere than it uses.

I saw Kudzu when I attended a Programmable Logic Controller class in Forest City, NC. That vine covered the ground surrounding the Parker Inc plant there, as far as the eye could see, and the trees in the area around the plant were smothered by Kudzu.

I see from Google Maps streetview photos that a lot of the pine trees that were there in 2004 are missing, replaced by shorter broadleafs, and that they've done something to control Kudzu, but if you examine the pictures closely, especially the old cottonwoods and elms in the back ground you will see Kudzu vines reaching out into the air, searching out other plants to invade.

203 Pine St
Forest City, NC
35.314723, -81.851967