2020. Biodiversity = “how many are there?” + “what are they like?” It goes hand in hand with any living thing’s sustainability. Including trees!
December 18, 2020
Open gallery
Sustainability needs everyone and everything on Earth. Even trees. #Ispeakforthetrees - The Lorax #Everythingisconnected - Avatar Aang (Nickelodeon)
By Ryan Ramirez
Everything in existence needs to change, including humans and our way of life. It keeps things exciting after all. But even when change is for the better, there are still repercussions, direct and indirect. And Amanda, Paola, Julie, and Joshua have given us a good example of this. Deforestation and fragmentation are the most
common methods we take to shape the environment to our tolerance or liking. And while this is understandable, it is unwise because we are not just killing the trees we chose, we are also causing the suffering of the trees we DIDN’T choose. Another fact we overlook is that when trees suffer, all other living things around them and depend on them, including ourselves, suffer too. One of the ways of harming neighboring trees/forests is by reducing their biodiversity, in terms of how many there are, and are they different to each other.
In their study, the students reviewed the differences in tree biodiversity from rural to suburban to fully-urban areas across New York State. They hypothesized that suburban environments, in general, would hold a larger and sustaining number of trees than in urban and rural areas. Instead, they found out that the rural region of New York State held more sustaining forests. On the contrary though, not every tree region is the same as the other. Regardless, it doesn’t change the fact that urbanization is hurting them all. Use data like what these students have gathered to determine how you can help your home-forests. As Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax once said, “UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”