Tag: trees
Phytoremediation: Using native vegetation to stabilise heavy metal contaminants at polluted sites
Elevated concentrations of heavy metals at polluted sites represent serious human health hazards and environmental threats. Persistent metal pollution is hard to remedy but one possible and effective method is phytoremediation, using plants to stabilise the metal pollution and ameliorate the contaminated soil properties. Across 20 years of research, Drs Madeleine Günthardt-Goerg and Pierre Vollenweider of the Swiss Federal Institute […]
Altitude range shift of the Spanish Fir under climate change
In response to a changing climate, organisms must adapt or migrate to more suitable habitats where the environmental conditions are more favourable. Dr Antonio González-Hernández and his colleagues Dr Diego Nieto-Lugilde, Dr Julio Peñas de Giles, and Professor Francisca Alba-Sánchez, at the universities of Granada and Córdoba, Spain, studied the difference in distribution between two life stages of the Spanish […]
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Neuron-less knowledge processing in forests
Dr Aviv Segev, Professor at the University of South Alabama, is researching the knowledge-related activity of forests. While trees do not have neurons, they can build a communication network, and Dr Segev analyses their use of the resources needed for survival. This study demonstrates that neuron-like relations occur in a forest knowledge-processing system. Results demonstrate that trees use mechanisms analogous […]