Rainforests being Destroyed by… Trees
A recent study has found that non-native trees can cause harm to rainforests.
The study, which covered more than 220,000 hectares of rainforest in Hawaii, found that there were large amounts of non-native trees causing problems to the rainforest.
The Hawaiian rainforest usually consists of mainly ohia trees (Metrosideros polymorpha), but non-native trees such as tropical ash (Fraxinus uhdei) and the Canary Island fire tree (Morella faya) are beginning to take over in some parts.
In particular, the study found that the non-native trees had a denser canopy, which results in less light reaching to the lower levels of the forest. This results in native understory plants, such as tree ferns, being suppressed.
Also, non-native trees can change the soil fertility, which often results in better growing conditions for invaders.
Gregory Asner, who led the research team said
Invasive tree species often show biochemical, physiological and structural properties that are different from native species. We can use these ‘fingerprints’ combined with the 3-D images to see how the invasives are changing the forest.
You can read more about this on the Stanford University website.
Tags: rainforests, trees
