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Decomposition might take a "long time" from a human perspective, but from a geological perspective it's nothing at all. Fungi can break down wood chips in a ve

by rleigh 4y ago

Decomposition might take a "long time" from a human perspective, but from a geological perspective it's nothing at all. Fungi can break down wood chips in a very short time since the wood is easily accessible. A whole solid tree will take longer, but the timescale is only years, not decades or longer.

samatman 4y ago
You're just wrong about this. It's still possible to find large fallen American Chestnut trunks from the blight. Trees will increase their biomass, hence sequestered carbon, for decades, and if left where they fall, it very much depends on the tree. A poplar will be gone in a couple years, a sycamore/plane will substantially still be there in a cenury.
slavik81 4y ago
It absolutely takes decades for trees to decompose. This is just one study of many: > In woods stretching from Minnesota to Maine in the north and from Louisiana to Georgia in the south, technicians catalogued every downed log they found. They ranked each log on a scale of one to five, from freshly fallen to badly decomposed, and then returned to the same forests five years later to revisit and reassess. Using these figures, the researchers were able to create a model of decay for 36 different species of trees. “Some people said it couldn’t be done,” said Woodall, “but we did it.” > The computer model calculates that the “residence times” (how long a tree will take to completely decompose) for conifer species range from 57 to 124 years, while hardwood species are typically around on the forest floor for 46 to 71 years. https://northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bolts/tree-falls-in-a-forest https://northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bolts/tree-falls-in-... Note that these estimates are for trees that have already fallen to the forest floor. It's common for trees to stand for decades after death, especially in dense forests where they have other trees to lean on.

by rleigh 4y ago

samatman 4y ago

You're just wrong about this. It's still possible to find large fallen American Chestnut trunks from the blight. Trees will increase their biomass, hence sequestered carbon, for decades, and if left where they fall, it very much depends on the tree. A poplar will be gone in a couple years, a sycamore/plane will substantially still be there in a cenury.

slavik81 4y ago

It absolutely takes decades for trees to decompose. This is just one study of many: > In woods stretching from Minnesota to Maine in the north and from Louisiana to Georgia in the south, technicians catalogued every downed log they found. They ranked each log on a scale of one to five, from freshly fallen to badly decomposed, and then returned to the same forests five years later to revisit and reassess. Using these figures, the researchers were able to create a model of decay for 36 different species of trees. “Some people said it couldn’t be done,” said Woodall, “but we did it.” > The computer model calculates that the “residence times” (how long a tree will take to completely decompose) for conifer species range from 57 to 124 years, while hardwood species are typically around on the forest floor for 46 to 71 years. https://northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bolts/tree-falls-in-a-forest https://northernwoodlands.org/knots_and_bolts/tree-falls-in-... Note that these estimates are for trees that have already fallen to the forest floor. It's common for trees to stand for decades after death, especially in dense forests where they have other trees to lean on.