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54 Comments
- Junkyarddawg, on 11/08/2009, -5/+36Plants use water, grass use less than trees, and paving over the whole area reduces water loss even more. (notes from this weeks meeting of the "No ***** Sherlock" club)
- TheKriket, on 11/09/2009, -2/+21However, planting trees can have a positive effect on the air we breathe.
- sgfreak784, on 11/09/2009, -0/+17So, let's plant a bunch of 'em and keep the ocean levels from rising. :)
- askantik, on 11/09/2009, -0/+13Damn, my life would've been so much easier up to this point if I'd just known that trees absorb water from the soil!
- InactiveUser, on 11/09/2009, -0/+12Junkyard you are so wrong.
And your assumption is based on ignorance assumed by size and not function.
Paving increases flooding which increases turbidity which decreases water quality and increases siltation causing more flooding reducing habitat and increasing maintenance costs and heavy mineral pollution of water ways through acidification through metal oxides suspended in silt and rock layers. Eg mineral erosion of Pyrite - fools gold breaks down to Iron sulphate then iron oxide reducing the sulphate to sulphuric acid. Typically a slimy brown runoff.
Plants, specifically trees use more water until they reach maturity then they use considerably less while maintaining soil moisture through evaporation protection increasing steady and continuous flows and increasing water quality, stream health and reducing turbidity, nutrient flow and flooding. Harvesting timber from a water catchment is a big fat no no.
Grass uses more water than trees normally in most climates and exposes the soil to erosion far more than a treed area. Grasses do little to reduce flooding though they can assist in holding back nutrient runoff. Only long grasses more than a meter high can assist with water flow reduction and moisture retention.
Ecology 101. - Agalychnis, on 11/09/2009, -1/+11Paving makes water get to streams more efficiently though, so a paved watershed would likely flood whenever it rains, but go bone dry when it doesn't rain for any period.
- arkwald, on 11/09/2009, -1/+11Actually the big thing to take away from this is just how forests can be sponges. Based on this you might be able to do some long term flood control. As the trees first up absorb water but also apparently also filter and slow the flow of water, creating a more constant long term flow of water then just big spurts that come down whenever it rains hard. The ultimately is that ecosystems are really complex and there is a lot to consider. So it is harder to say that trees = good or trees != good. It's all a matter of context.
- jotchie, on 11/09/2009, -1/+10Building dams stops water.
- linagee, on 11/09/2009, -0/+9So does using a car that doesn't have crap coming out of it's exhaust pipe.
- stunner21, on 11/09/2009, -0/+8Oh wow I'm so enlightened, please tell me more Dr Obvious
- MindTrigger, on 11/09/2009, -1/+6THIS JUST IN: Human's suck at trying to control nature. We can't live in harmony with it, and we sure as ***** can't bend it to our will with out eventual catastrophic results. We are screwed. Have a nice day.
- dsmx, on 11/09/2009, -0/+4Actually in europe the air coming out of the exhaust pipes is almost always cleaner than the air going in, in city driving.
- directedition, on 11/09/2009, -0/+4What kind of idiots are planting trees in grasslands? Of course trees affect water flow. That's why planting trees has been used through-out the mountains of India to prevent erosion and land-slides.
- angryredplanet, on 11/10/2009, -0/+4Take heed of the fact that trees planted in areas that natively have no forest reduces water flow? Yeah, so what? Plants, particularly large ones like trees, require water, the sky is blue and gravity acts in one direction; empirical facts, you've gotta love them if only just for their conversational value.
I assume your response would be to get out there with your shotgun, pig dogs and chainsaw? - smokinDND, on 11/09/2009, -1/+5you should grab a book one day and read about american natives (the true americans), just because you cant live in harmony doesnt mean you speak for all of us humans. "western" (impirial) philosofy never understood nature or balance, and just want everything for themeselves. you can go screw yourself and take all your kind with you, have a nice day.
- tgc1, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3***** hell. What is this Idiocracy?
Yeah plants and trees suck up water. But they also allow moisture in the air to settle onto them. Ever see a meadow in the morning? It's saturated with moisture. All those plants trap moisture. Therefore keeping it from evaporating when the sun is directly above. If there were no trees and no grass all the water would evaporate and the are would become... what's the word... hmm... oh a Desert! You know deserts right? The places where there is very little moisture and coincidentally no real vegetation. Wow... what a coincidence.
Plant TONS of trees. We need them a lot more than they need us. They clean the air, keep areas from becoming arid and they just plain ***** look nice. - Thermador, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3Damned if you do. Damned if you don't.
- FDisk, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3But.. but.. what if it's a forest of lemon trees. :-/
- ketedford, on 11/09/2009, -0/+3Well, at least we got to the root of the problem.
- picor96, on 11/09/2009, -3/+5Logging FTW!
- raza7370, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2Creating forests where none existed may affect long-term hydrology.
- urbanetruth, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2It's a complicated issue that involves more than just trees and water. I hope whoever did this study realizes this.
- smokinDND, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2theis article should be about 15 years old.
this all depends of the landscape, and its vegetation if it's grasslands, swamps, mountains, desert, tundra, etc..
pine and eucaliptus can be a plague if not planted in the right location, pine can dry up plus kill the land, eucaliptus also suck up the land, never plant these near creeks for example, or very fertile land. for example goverments should pay back the price of planting a tree if you use native trees (trees that grow naturally in the area) to help maintain its original condition,
these usally are in harmonly with the type of land and water in certain area, and help estabilish naturally occuring comunities of plants wich help with mostirue and fertility, plus wildlife. - Contradictions, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2- Trees slowed the flow of water.
- Trees were cut down, water flowed feely
- Trees were planted again, and water slowed.
What's the problem? - BeerRules, on 11/09/2009, -0/+2Who submitted this article, Capt Obvious???
Of course plants require water, they also give off more oxygen, and suck up more CO2.
@Capt Obvious... can't wait to read the article about deserts being dry. - charlietuna, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1This should be filed under "no free lunch". It is not an argument for paving the everglades for reasons cited by others here.
- InactiveUser, on 11/09/2009, -1/+2So people here think clearing the Amazon will increase water flow?
Dick heads.. - pilgrim3970, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1Moral of the story - trying to take the lazy way out of cleaning up the environment (planting trees out of some sort of act of penenace) could create an even bigger problem.
- charlietuna, on 11/09/2009, -1/+2You would need to use halophytes. FYI Oak trees don't grow in salt water.
- ketedford, on 11/09/2009, -1/+2This just in: Drinking water from a glass leaves the glass with less water.
- linagee, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1We were fscked the second we started toying with mother nature and tried to control things.
- ancientdinko, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1we'll have to start in Greenland!
- MindTrigger, on 11/12/2009, -0/+1Ahh, you are one of those people who pretends to know a person's mind by reading a few sentences online. Good luck with that, kid. I'll let you leave your backwards insult here, if that makes you feel good. However, I would love to hear all about how you are living in harmony with nature, since you seem to fancy yourself an authority on the subject.
It matters not if a few tiny pockets of humanity learned to live in relative harmony if the global masses choose to ignore such wisdom. Thus, we are still screwed despite your ego. - mkriss5681, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1Isn't preventing erosion caused by excess water-flow a good thing?
- planetidiot, on 11/09/2009, -1/+2Uh. No. Where you plant trees can effect water flow negatively or positively. Also this is specifically in regards to afforestation, not reforestation. Read the article.
- Auntmac, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1DAMN, NATURE! YOU THIRSTY!
- Thorpe, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1*imagines a lemon river*
- Fitjarald, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1so what makes the air in cities so dirty in the firstplace, then?
- Brooks007, on 11/12/2009, -0/+1Touché
- Fitjarald, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1Ummm... you're wrong.
- Brooks007, on 11/09/2009, -1/+2Your wrong. Humans are unique in the animal kingdom because we are intelligent enough to be able to overcome natures "fail-safes". No other animal can do this. Nature will not keep us in line the way it does with the rest of the natural world so we have to keep ourselves in line if we want to survive.
- linagee, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1@Fitjarald: Trucks.
- McNandatron, on 11/09/2009, -0/+1Holy *****, trees use water?!?!?!
- hydrodev, on 11/09/2009, -1/+1How do you know the rest of the animal kingdom aren't smart enough NOT to? Maybe they realized a longtime ago, that walking on two legs and thinking too much was a bad thing, and ultimately leads to catastrophe. Maybe, it was a choice to take it down a notch and keep the balance. Maybe the dolphins have it right.
So long, and thanks for all the fish! - JasonCox, on 11/09/2009, -1/+1So wait, if we don't plant trees, we're cutting down on nature's natural CO2 scrubbers and contributing to global warming... but if we do plant trees, we're fraking with the ecosystem and now having a negative effect on water flow? Ugh.
- bubbadigg, on 11/09/2009, -0/+0Putting water into bottles has a negative effect on water flow.
(wonder why Atlanta suffers droughts now? Check to see how much water Coke is putting into bottles in Atlanta.) - blackdoggg, on 11/09/2009, -1/+1Plant them where you ripped them all out from. Regrow forests where forests were before the ***** on the earth.
- bubbadigg, on 11/11/2009, -0/+0No they don't... this is all a scam by the government to wipe out minority populations. Just like syphilis, AIDS, and the fake moon landing.
It's the government I tell ya !! - bubbadigg, on 11/11/2009, -0/+0cleaner than air going in doesn't mean it still isn't pollution?
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