Evening shadows arrive like cloaked
ninjas descending silently into the treetops. Soon all light dims into
non-existence, consumed by the night.
The forest is a different world in
the dark. Anything living or travelling in it must tune the senses to
night-time frequencies. Sight, the primary human sense in daylight, gives way
to hearing, smell, and even touch.
There is an increased awareness that
things you cannot see are seeing you. You hear them move and you wonder. What
is moving and where is it going?
A forest fact of life is that
anything moving is looking for something to grab and eat. Or, trying to avoid
being the something grabbed and eaten.
A research group now tells us that
movement in the forest does not come from just from animals. They say their
research has shown that trees move as they go to sleep at night and as they
awaken in the morning.
The researchers used terrestrial
laser scanning to measure the night movements of silver birch trees in Finland
and Austria. The laser equipment scanned tree canopies and branches from sunset
to sunrise, making intricate measurements of movement undetectable by the human
eye.
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)
is a method of collecting complex geometric data from buildings, machines and
other objects, including trees. It has become an important modern tool in
surveying.
TLS data collected in both Finland
and Austria showed that branches hung as much as 10 centimetres lower at sunset
than at sunrise. The sagging was measured over several hours, ruling out the
possibility that wind moved the branches.
Some researchers believe that tree
branches relax and droop at night because of a decrease in a tree’s internal
water pressure. During daylight hours photosynthesis converts sunshine into
energy. With no photosynthesis after sunset, water pressure decreases inside
the tree and the branches relax.
The TLS studies are being used to
help determine whether this is true or whether trees are simply following their
own body clocks in the same way we humans do.
This kind of research sounds
esoteric. However, it could be useful in understanding how trees adapt to changing
environmental conditions, especially those resulting from climate change.
For anyone interested, the
Finland-Austria TLS studies were reported in Frontiers in Plant Science, which
can be found at http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpls.2016.00222/full.
My interest in when trees sleep is
much less esoteric. I wonder if I should tiptoe when walking through the woods
at dawn.
---
A friend in Edmonton
texted me Sunday afternoon with the news that Canadian singer Bobby Curtola had
died. I was saddened but shocked later when I watched the evening CTV National
News, which carried not a word about Curtola. Much about Mohammed Ali, shark
attacks in Australia etc. but nothing about the Canadian kid who was an international
sensation in the 1960s, and continued to entertain and to help others long
after his star began to fade.
I don’t watch the
CBC National anymore because of its pathetically poor news lineup. I am told,
however, that it had an extensive segment on the singer and his life.
I found snippets
about him on Twitter and other Internet sites but generally I thought national
news media coverage was skimpy.
He deserved better.
He had 25 Canadian gold singles and 12 Canadian gold albums. More importantly,
as noted in the Canadian Encyclopaedia, he established the first
coast-to-coast music touring circuit in Canada. He also was the first to prove
that it was possible to be an international pop music star living in Canada.
He did much work for
charities, hosting telethons to raise money for groups scattered around the
world.
Best of all, Bobby
Curtola was a genuine person. I know that because we were classmates throughout
high school. (He got better marks than I did despite the rising pressure and
demands as a newly-discovered teen idol).
I saw him a few
times over the years and fame changed him little from the nice guy who pumped
gas at his dad’s gas station in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay).
He was a natural
person and a natural singer who lived a natural life. And, I imagine that
unlike many entertainment stars, he died a natural death.
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