Researchers Accidentally Find Trees ‘Holding Their Breath’ During Wildfires
Wildfires can affect people hundreds of miles away from where they’re burning, with humans far away having to shelter from the smoke riding winds far and wide. Well, a new study has found that trees that are within the path of wildfire smoke act similarly, effectively closing themselves off to the world during periods of smokiness.
Transcript
00:00Wildfires can affect people hundreds of miles from where they're burning, with far away
00:07humans having to shelter from the smoke, which rides winds far and wide.
00:11Well, a new study has found that trees that are within the path of wildfire smoke act
00:15similarly, effectively closing themselves off to the world.
00:19Plants like humans have pores in their exteriors called stomata.
00:23Stomata are where plants take in CO2 and release oxygen, the opposite of humans.
00:27However, this breathing in and out happens concurrently in plants as well.
00:30However, during observations in Colorado during the 2020 wildfire season, experts noticed
00:35that when the air was hanging heavy with smoke, the plants they were measuring photosynthesis
00:39levels for another study were exhibiting weird behavior, in that there was almost no photosynthesis
00:43happening at all, and their stomata were completely closed.
00:47The researchers say they then conducted a sort of plant CPR, clearing the leaves' airways
00:51by changing the temperature and humidity levels, finding that the plants suddenly began photosynthesis
00:56again and producing organic compounds.
00:59They say they still aren't sure if the tree is doing this on purpose or if other factors
01:02are at work, but that this raises new questions about the long and short term effects of wildfires
01:08on our planet's forests.