My son asked me the other day, "Does cutting down trees affect rains?
Yes. It does. Trees are necessary for rain. Trees creates cold and humid atmosphere required for rain.
Water from ponds, lakes, rivers, seas get evaporated due to the heat of the sun and rise as water vapor. As we go up in the atmosphere, it is cooler. So, at maximum height in the atmosphere, the water vapour in the air condenses and tiny water droplets are formed. These tiny water droplets floating in the air along with dust particles are called clouds. As the clouds move up further, it is even cooler. Water droplets come together to form larger water droplets. The larger water droplets are so heavy that air cannot hold them. There fore they fall down as rain. If the temperature is very low, the water droplets freeze in the atmosphere and fall as hail or snow. The coming down of water in the form of rain or hail or snow is called precipitation.
Important thing to note is that the water vapour is also added by the plants through a process called transpiration. Let is look at what is transpiration.
Water from ponds, lakes, rivers, seas get evaporated due to the heat of the sun and rise as water vapor. As we go up in the atmosphere, it is cooler. So, at maximum height in the atmosphere, the water vapour in the air condenses and tiny water droplets are formed. These tiny water droplets floating in the air along with dust particles are called clouds. As the clouds move up further, it is even cooler. Water droplets come together to form larger water droplets. The larger water droplets are so heavy that air cannot hold them. There fore they fall down as rain. If the temperature is very low, the water droplets freeze in the atmosphere and fall as hail or snow. The coming down of water in the form of rain or hail or snow is called precipitation.
Important thing to note is that the water vapour is also added by the plants through a process called transpiration. Let is look at what is transpiration.
1. Transpiration is the process by which plants return water to the atmosphere. After absorbing water from the ground, plants release water through their leaves. Transpiration helps plants stay cool, in the same way perspiration keeps humans and animals cool.
2. Plants and trees have pores on their leaves – stomata – which enable the exchange of gases such as carbon dioxide between the leaves and the surrounding air. When stomata open, water droplets are released and usually evaporate from the leaf’s surface. This process is known as transpiration and provides an important source of moisture for cloud formation and rain.
How much water do plants transpire?
An acre of corn gives off about 3,000-4,000 gallons (11,400-15,100 liters) of water each day, and a large oak tree can transpire 40,000 gallons (151,000 liters) per year.Large rainforests (and their humidity) contribute to the formation of rain clouds, and generate as much as 75 percent of their own rain.
This continuous movement of water from the earth's surface, water bodies and plants as water vapour to the atmosphere and back to earth's surface as rain hail or snow is called water cycle. This cycle maintain the supply of water on land.
So, trees play a very important role in maintaining the supply of water. Let us conserve trees.
This continuous movement of water from the earth's surface, water bodies and plants as water vapour to the atmosphere and back to earth's surface as rain hail or snow is called water cycle. This cycle maintain the supply of water on land.
So, trees play a very important role in maintaining the supply of water. Let us conserve trees.
This is pretty nice blog I must say ! Hope the information will benefit a lot of people especially children .! All the very best and keep going.
ReplyDeleteIt is in fact less known that trees gives back water to atmosphere ( or rather trees sweats !!! )
And the figures given are staggering..!! 4000 gallons per acre.. !
Just wondering how much the eucalyptus and acacia plants transpire as they are known to be water guzzlers.!
Thanks for all the info
There was a time in Kerala in 70s an 80s when the awareness about protecting the environments were well spread and activism was in full swing. Silent valley is a story worth remembering.And that time deforestation was happening in good measure and deforested land was planted with Eucalyptus and Acacia trees. There was wild spread critics of this as these trees are found to be draining out the underground water too fast making the land dry barren quite fast.
ReplyDeleteA related post :
SilentValley
Your comment is taking this to another discussion thread. Both Eucalyptus and Acacia are of Australian origin. It is said that Eucalyptus consume lot of water because of its fast growing nature. At the same time , the other argument is that they are efficient water users.Their leaves hang vertically so they are not exposed to the midday sun which reduces water loss through transpiration.
ReplyDelete1. Tell me why it was decided to plant Eucalyptus and Acacia trees in deforested land
2. What is your thought on the question you raised on water consumption? Does Acacia too absorb water ? Is n't it more like a Cactus ?
For the interest of children , Koalas in Australia survive on Eucalyptus leaves. These leaves have lot of water. Giraffs feed on the leaves of Acacia.They are one of the few animals that can eat leaves from trees with thorns. This is because they have a long agile tongue that can wrap around the thorns.
"Giraffs feed on the leaves of Acacia.They are one of the few animals that can eat leaves from trees with thorns. This is because they have a long agile tongue that can wrap around the thorns."
ReplyDeleteThat was indeed a quite an interesting piece of info. Thanks. But is being "long and agile" enough to handle the thorns..? It must be pretty hard as well. Aint I right..?
Well on the other two questions:
1.It was for the purpose Industrial purpose. These trees provide good chunk of softwood and van be used for making pulp which is used as a raw material for many Industries( like Textiles and Paper). Also they grow very fast and provide good volume of wood in no time.
2.Acacia's natural habitat is dry grasslands where it has the capability to grow roots deeper and absorb water from lower layers of the soil . Now while this helps to keep the tree hydrated, the rest of the flora and live stock in the same environment suffers as they fall short of water as much of it gets consumed by the Acacia. It was opposed for that reason.
In fact such different traits of different species of plans and animals indicate how some of it survives in a competitive environments while others perishes when there is lack of resources. We can easily see where Charles Darwin was coming to when he proposed the theory of evolution.
Thanks a lot for all the information. Hope it will reach more people.