53-million-year-old high Arctic mammals wintered in darkness (cold, pet, wild)

[Brian.Pearson]

Ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year in a far milder climate than today that featured lush, swampy forests, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

Ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year in a far milder climate than today that featured lush, swampy forests, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Interestingly enough I found it fascinating that mummified Tree trunks and massive logs have been found in both the Arctic and the Antarctic and surrounding islands. I actually have been studying this not so long ago. I'd actually like to vist these places. The research shows that Axel Heiberg Island in the Canadian Archealopolego near upper most Greenland had many forests of Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia) . Down in the Antarctic many of the forests were desciduous trees like beech. In both locations these trees found were commonly 24.6 meters or over 80 foot tall. Some trees measuring over 120 fot in height. Certainly not the small shrubby forms of birch found in Scandinavia or even Greenland today. Studying the tree rings, they found that their growth was governed by a sort of on and off switch. Where many forms of desciduous trees will show slow down at the end of the season before completely shutting down, these ancient trees started immediately with new season growth and then abruptly shut off with what seems to have been a reaction to light rather than on coming cold.

Well here's what I posted in one of my blogs with photos of the ancient stumps and logs which BTW still will burn. You might also note on the map i have of the location of the island in the arctic where the ancient forests have been uncovered that it is 1110 kilometers north from the Arctic circle.
//www.city-data.com/blogs/blog6...ent-world.html

//www.city-data.com/blogs/blog6...troboides.html

Here are some other photos below. Even mummified branches, leaves and cones of the Dawn Redwood or at least a type of it. The Dawn Redwood unlike other redwoods loses it leaves in the fall and winter months.



http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/publications/newsletters/news30/images/1987-1989_collage_r6_c1.gif (broken link)http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/current/1999/090299/Arctic.jpeg (broken link)

[Brian.Pearson]

I've heard that tree roots tend to do their growing during the winter. I don't know if that applies to all trees, but maybe not to trees that have reached maximum growth. Just guessing, there.

[NightBazaar]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

I've heard that tree roots tend to do their growing during the winter. I don't know if that applies to all trees, but maybe not to trees that have reached maximum growth. Just guessing, there.

In areas with cold seasons, trees tend to enter a state of "dormancy". Maybe a better description is that they are less active. Root growth begins slowing down in Fall when temps start dropping and the soil gets colder, and cease growing in the winter. That includes both decidious and coniferous trees. They're still active, but much more slowly. That's because when the soil is cold, it's too hard for the roots to grow very much.


Roots: The Unseen Half of Growth (http://www.canr.msu.edu/vanburen/rootgrow.htm - broken link)

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

I've heard that tree roots tend to do their growing during the winter. I don't know if that applies to all trees, but maybe not to trees that have reached maximum growth. Just guessing, there.

Interestingly there is truth to that in many areas. I actually lived in the San Jacinto mountains above Palm Springs, California for about 24 years. I collected plant specimans from all over the Southwest during that time. It was a tough thing selling that place and moving here.

Anyway, I did an experiment with about 100 seeds of the Torrey Pine (Pinus Torreyana), with some being planted in flats and about 30 planted in various locations throughout my land and I had several acres. Keep in mind now that these pines are native to the wild only at a location from sea level to a few hundred feet just north of San Diego. I wanted to see if I planted them in the fall in the ground and under almost mile high (5000 ft Elevation) location with all of the climatic conditions of real extreme cold weather and snow, if these seeds would be hindered or germinate normally as they would from the coastal area I collected them from. To my surprize they actually germinated and came up through the snow at the end of February with all the health and vigor of an ideal situation from their native environment. So biological activity does play out under the ground in many circustances.

Although I think in very extreme cold frigid environs it may be limited but still may take place. The other interesting thing that is known about these ancient Eocene forests is that the climate, even winters, were very mild. It is said to have been more like the temperate climate of Vancouver, Canada. Another important factor is that unlike today's desert-like dryness of the arctic air, ancient arctic climate had much more humidity which was almost triple that found there now and the same with the Antarctic. Although they have all that snow, their new precipitation is only a couple inches a year.

This morden day global warming or change or whatever you want to call it is nothing to do with earth history patterns. This is man caused and can lead to catastrophic events. It should be noted that this global warming in the arctic has been shown to be killing millions of mature Larch trees in Alaska. The reason for this is that these trees will receive a premature thaw to the ground earlier than what is common to these areas. Then the biological activity around the roots is triggered for growth. The problem comes when several periods of later freezing occurs in spring and damages these what would traditionally otherwise still been dormant root systems. Because they are not dormant but growing, they are vulnerable to frost damage by freezing and of course damage and dead roots kill the whole tree. But the old world was most certainly an interesting place to be. Below is a link to projects going on in Greenland by botanists from Dänemark who are experimenting with ways to reforest many areas of Greenland.

History - Skov & Landskab

[Brian.Pearson]

bluepacific, you sure know what you are talking about! though I might have some reservations about the causes of climate change. For example, there are peaks and valleys when it comes to changes in sunspots, which tend to have an effect on how hot or cold it gets on Earth. And I think there are other mechanisms that have also have an affect. It may be that the weather will get colder, so if we put too much effort into thwarting the warming, it could end up making the cold weather colder when it comes -- one of those "unintended consequences" things...

BTW, I thought this might interest you.

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

bluepacific, you sure know what you are talking about! though I might have some reservations about the causes of climate change. For example, there are peaks and valleys when it comes to changes in sunspots, which tend to have an effect on how hot or cold it gets on Earth. And I think there are other mechanisms that have also have an affect. It may be that the weather will get colder, so if we put too much effort into thwarting the warming, it could end up making the cold weather colder when it comes -- one of those "unintended consequences" things...

BTW, I thought this might interest you.

Unfortunately the label Global Warming does not accurately explain all of the major components going on in climate change. To be honest it is also more than just climate change, but that's for another thread.

In my blog on the ancient forgotten forest, there is a photo of a researcher woman named Hope Jahren who is holding that small unburied redwood log in her arms. She made some fascinating and important discoveries regarding the structure of water, although she is not truly aware of the actual implications of what she discovered. When I saw it , it completed more pieces of a puzzle of which I've had an interest in. But I'll get to that later.

In August of last year I opened up a thread here on the subject of an Austrian self-taught scientist named Viktor Schauberger. I opened it here because I could'nt get any truly intelligent discussion from any of the pseudo-genius Marxist Biologists from the religion and philosophy section. Unfortunately no one was interested here either. I also opened up threads in the Green Living and Gardening sub-forums as well, but again no response. No one was interested in the intrguing subject matter, so maybe it was way over most of their heads. But here it is again. Much of what Viktor Schauberger discovered, researched and in relation to his inventions, has direct relationships to what Hope Jahren discovered in her isotope studies on the amazingly preserved wood cellulose tissue samples from the Dawn Redwood they unearthed. Incredibly one of the mummified tree stumps was 3 meters (10 feet) in diameter and estimated height of many of these was around 120 feet. We can actually thank Global Warming for uncovering these incredibly preserved woody tissues of this ancient wood, branches, twigs, leaves and cones. The difference of these samples is that they are not petrified wood fossils which is merely broken down decayed tissue replaced over time by mineral deposits. It's the real McCoy.

If you can ever get the book, "Living water" written by Swedish author Olaf Alexandersson, then by all means do so. His observation and understanding of the nature of spring water is important for understanding what Hope Jahren discovered, but was puzzled about. Viktor Schauberger found that in a pristine old growth forest environment there is an upward movement of energized health water in the soil which defies gravity. It will actually move up mountains and bring with it beneficial salts of various forms for feeding the forests. Mind you these salts are not in table salt for but there are in fact many crystaline mineral salt trace elements which are necessary for good healthy plant growth.

Take a look back at that thread I created:
//www.city-data.com/forum/scien...gy-viktor.html

Or perhaps it can be summed up in this link here of Callum Coats who gives quite a lengthy summary of Viktor schauberger's life work. Give yourself plenty of time because it's quite lengthy.
Sacred Living Geometry -Enlightened Environmental Theories of Viktor Schauberger Video

Once you get that down, then I can explain what Hope Jahren's find actually says about our ancient world.

BTW, here is a photo of Hope Jahren in the Arctic archeapolego near Greenland on Axel Heiberg Island.

[bluepacific]

Originally Posted by Brian.Pearson

BTW, I thought this might interest you.

Actually that is interesting and there are other trees which would be excellent candidates. Unfortunately we need most humans on board with these programs. As well as planting such massive tree forestation plots, we also need the behavior and habits of imperfect humans to change for it to be more effective. I'll have to comment in another thread on this. The Green Living sub-forum simply gets bashers of anything environmental.