"Bobcats were extirpated from heavily farmed Iowa by the 1970s due to historical overharvesting and habitat loss to agriculture, persecution and lax regulations"........... "Then, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, evidence of their recolonization slowly started to mount in the southwestern portion of the state that retains the largest amount of brushy and wooded habitat...........This population colonization of the State continues to occur today............."Researchers equipped 61 Bobcats with radio collars in the first two years of their lives between 2003 and 2009 in southcentral Iowa, where the heaviest populations of the predators are found"............."65% of the males dispersed from their natal range, while 26% of the females left"..............."The females tended not to go too far while the males made longer trips to find a new home territory"............."One male ended up over 125 miles away"............."Most of the dispersals went east, west or south".......... "Only one male went northward, into the heavily tilled Agricultural region which outside of riverside habitat, is virtually uninhabitable for Bobcats"

https://wildlife.org/jwm-bobcats-recolonize-iowa-but-farms-remain-obstacles/

JWM: Bobcats recolonize Iowa, but farms remain obstacles

Posted on September 4, 2019

Bobcats have been recolonizing southern Iowa after being extirpated from the state several decades ago.
 ©Iowa State University

Bobcats are steadily recolonizing the southern third of Iowa after being extirpated from the state for decades, according to new research.

“It highlights that bobcats are highly adaptable,” said Dawn Reding, an associate professor of biology at Luther College and the co-author of a study published recently in the Journal of Wildlife Management.

Bobcats were extirpated from the state by the 1970s due to historical overharvesting and habitat loss to agriculture, persecution and lax regulations, Reding said. But people began to report sightings of the felines in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the evidence of their recolonization slowly started to mount.

Reding and her co-authors have been working on understanding how well the species is recolonizing in the state. They had a huge number of animals to work with partly thanks to trappers in the area. When trappers caught bobcats, they were required to report them to conservation officers and biologists because it was illegal to harvest the species in the state at the time of the study. Reding said that researchers jumped on these opportunities and equipped the trapped animals with radio collars before they were released.

For this study, the researchers looked at how far juveniles were dispersing after they left their natal range during their first two years to find new territory.

Study authors said that better cooperation between states would help regional bobcat management.

 ©Iowa State University

The researchers looked at dispersal data gathered from 61 bobcats equipped with radio collars in the first two years of their lives between 2003 and 2009 in southcentral Iowa, where the heaviest populations of the predators are found.

They found that 65% of the males in the study dispersed from their natal range, while 26% of the females left. The females tended not to go too far while the males made longer trips to find a new home territory. One male ended up over 125 miles away.

Reding said it surprised her that the bobcats did so well in the area. “We’re in a pretty agriculturally fragmented landscapes. There’s not as much forest and grassland as would be ideal for bobcats,” she said.

At least in the southern and central parts of the state, the cats could maneuver through this. But to the north, where there’s more agriculture, it isn’t quite so hospitable for the felines. Reding said that most of the dispersals that happened from cats in southcentral Iowa went east, west or south. Only one male went northward, but then ended up turning around and heading all the way to Missouri.

“We saw bobcats can move some pretty long distances, and they obviously don’t obey state boundaries,” Reding said.

This highlights one of the challenges for bobcat management in general, she said. Many states surrounding Iowa have different rules on harvesting. High harvests in neighboring states can affect dispersal distance and might slow their recolonization in Iowa.

As a result, Reding said, states should work together more to take a regional view on bobcat conservation and management.

"What keeps a wind turbine turning?"................ "How do you manufacture wind turbines and solar panels?"............... "Yes, these are loaded but not trick questions"..................."Indeed(and very much so), Wind power depends on oil and gas"........."And solar panels and wind blades require oil to manufacture them"............."It takes about two-thirds of a barrel of oil to make one solar panel"............... "Wind turbines contain gears, axles, a generator - all sorts of moving, turning parts"............. "Moving parts need lubrication-and lubrication means oil".............. "500 foot Windmill blades keep getting longer and longer-the only way to make them is through resins made from petrochemicals".............."Politicians keep lying to us about doing away with fossil fuels............Our entire economy and way of life depends on them...............Lithium battery production(electric cars, etc) today accounts for about 40 percent of lithium mining and 25 percent of cobalt mining"............."In an all-battery future, global mining would have to expand by more than 200 percent for copper, by a minimum of 500 percent for lithium, graphite, and rare earths, and far more for cobalt"................Sustainable/renewable energy this most certainly is not!!!

https://www.fraserinstitute.org/article/wind-and-solar-power-the-myth-of-green-energy

https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-you-want-renewable-energy-get-ready-to-dig-11565045328


https://thebulletin.org/2011/11/the-myth-of-renewable-energy/

https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&ai=DChcSEwjthLbjj97lAhUWq-wKHQRWAywYABAHGgJwag&ohost=www.google.com&cid=CAASEuRo2_zan8EJAYth-osFGgRafg&sig=AOD64_0SWAJkjto4rw9acDVAYUfPvxJuYg&q&adurl&ved=2ahUKEwjv067jj97lAhVU_J4KHdtcAyU4ChDRDHoECAsQAQ

Wind and solar power—the myth of ‘green’ energy

   

Appeared in the Calgary Sun, October 9, 2019

These days, wind and solar power are constantly depicted as desirable “energy alternatives” to fossil fuels, but many Albertans and Canadians are unaware of their environmental impacts.

Sure, the blanketing of scenic coastlines with skyscraper-size wind turbines are rather obvious, but turbine construction and installation also depends on fossil fuels. There’s the diesel-powered heavy equipment, which clears sites, digs foundations, transports components and assembles them. The coal or natural-gas-fired kilns that bake the concrete, additional coal to forge steel for foundations and towers, and the hydrocarbon-based fiberglass for their blades.

Solar panels also affect the environment in similar ways, be it extracting resources for their manufacture and transportation, devoting land to their installation, and maintaining, decommissioning and ultimately disposing them.

And crucially, there’s no adequate storage technology for the electricity wind and solar produce.

As noted in a recent study published by the Fraser Institute, most renewable energy capacity in Canada comes from wind turbines, which produce very little electricity even when there’s adequate wind. Hundreds if not thousands of them (and all their concrete, steel and other materials) are required to produce as much electricity as a single coal, natural gas or nuclear-powered plant. Moreover, standalone turbines must connect by powerlines to the electricity grid, which obviously requires much more infrastructure than when electricity is generated in a single power plant. (And to preserve their “green image,” powerlines are often buried, adding considerably to the cost and environmental impact.)

Because of the need to produce electricity when the wind and the sun are not blowing or shining adequately, other power sources, often new natural gas-powered plants, must be turned on and off—and ramped up or down—when required. However, the challenges and costs of “balancing” a grid by keeping gas-powered plants idling so they can be brought online always result in the suboptimal utilization of expensive assets—in other words, greater wear-and-tear and maintenance costs, and unnecessary additional CO2 emissions.

This being said, wind and solar power has provided politicians with an excuse to dispense favours—including taxpayer-funded subsidies and tax preferences to a supposedly “green” industry—while appearing to do something for the environment. And yet, despite more than two decades of massive subsidies, tax preferences and purchasing mandates from governments, wind and solar power still represent barely more than a rounding error of global energy production. In jurisdictions where renewables enjoyed strong but ill-considered political support, consumers and taxpayers now face much higher electricity bills and less-reliable power. And despite promises to the contrary, countries such as Germany, which have significantly increased wind and solar electricity production, have seen no meaningful reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

What happens to the defunct solar panels after their 7 year life span?
Answer:--Garbage they become!

In the end, however, politicians cannot defy the laws of physics and economics. The promise of wind and solar power will always clash with the need for electricity that is low cost and reliable. That’s why voters routinely punish politicians who pursue flawed renewable energy policies across Canada and beyond. Rising electricity costs due to increased wind and solar power damage the economy by making businesses that consume significant volumes of electricity less competitive and by leaving less money in the pockets of consumers.

You would have to dig up half the earth, employing slave-type labor
to get enought windmills and solar panels to perhaps replace 1/2 of
our current energy needs

Far from being a miracle cure-all for the shortcomings of conventional power generation, wind and solar power exaggerate the symptoms they pretend to address.

BIRD AND BAT KILLS ARE FREQUENT AND LARGE IN SCOPE

"Bats live mostly out of sight and out of mind"............."But their falling numbers are a reason to look up and worry"..........."Bats face increasing threats across North America, the victim of White-Nose Syndrome(fungus disease), shrinking natural habitat and 500 foot Wind Energy industrialization"............ “White-Nose” has killed millions of hibernating bats and an ever-growing number of wind turbines continues to kill thousands of bats every fall as they migrate south for the winter"............. "Bats benefit humans by eating mosquitoes and protecting crops like corn and soybeans by feasting on bugs that would otherwise ravage farmland"........... "They also pollinate plants and disperse seeds"............. "Contrary to myth, less than half of 1% of bats carry rabies"

https://phys.org/news/2019-11-sight-mind-falling.html

NOVEMBER 5, 2019

Bats live mostly out of sight and out of mind. But their falling numbers are a reason to look up and worry

by Patrick M. O'connell

It's the time of year when ghouls and goblins, mummies and monsters are out in force. But unlike many Halloween creatures, bats live in more than the imagination, making their homes in caves and hollowed-out trees in Illinois and the urban parks of Chicago.

The elusive winged mammals who make special appearances in decorations and throughout popular culture during the fall are under increasing threats across the state and the Midwest, the victim of a stubborn and spreading disease, shrinking natural habitat and a growing wind turbine industry.

 And with new changes to the Endangered Species Act, scientists and environmental advocates fear additional species of bats may be under siege from encroaching development and a changing, warming climate.

"It's really important to protect those remaining in the landscape so the bats do have a chance to reproduce," said Winifred Frick, the chief scientist at Bat Conservation International, adding that she believes it will be harder to prove that certain habitats are critical for the survival of a species in order for them to qualify for protected status in the future. "Anything that would hinder our ability to protect their habitat or their maternity habitats is less than ideal."

Mostly out of sight and out of mind because of their nighttime lifestyle and solitary flight tendencies, a dozen species of bats regularly call Illinois home, at least during the summer months, and the animals can be found throughout the Midwest. Aside from their rare nuisance appearances in attics, bats play a positive, critical role in the ecosystem, scientists say.

THE KILLING 500 FOOT WINDMILLS

The animals can be found in a variety of places across the city and the suburbs, scientists said, including city parks, forest preserves, golf courses and under roof tiles. Bats benefit humans during the summer by eating pesky insects, including mosquitoes, and provide important protection for Midwestern crops like corn and soybeans by feasting on bugs that could otherwise ravage farmland. In addition to pest control, bats—there are more than 40 different species that live in the U.S. - help pollinate plants and disperse seeds. And contrary to popular myth, less than half of 1% of bats carry rabies, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Three species, the Indiana bat, the gray bat and the northern long-eared bat, are federally protected. The northern long-eared bat population is shrinking rapidly, scientists said, in large part because of white-nose syndrome, a fungus that attacks bats while they hibernate in caves or mines for the winter. Two other species, the little brown bat and the tri-colored bat, may be up for protection in the future. All of those varieties of bat live in Illinois.

The endangered Indiana bat, which is closely monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and researchers, has declined from more than 700,000 in 1981 to about 537,000 this year, according to wildlife service statistics. The population has dropped significantly in the Northeast and Appalachia regions since white-nose syndrome arrived in 2006, though the numbers in the Ozark-Central region, which includes Illinois, have been mostly stable since the disease appeared. More than 69,000 bats live at the Magazine Mine in downstate Illinois, where the population has remained flat the last two years.

Because bats tend to hibernate in dense clusters in caves and mines, they are difficult for scientists to count. Scientists are working to develop a North American system for monitoring and analyzing all bat species in the near future. But ongoing studies show bats' population is on the decline.

"In a nutshell, most bat species in N. America are not doing well," Andrew King, a fish and wildlife biologist in the wildlife service's Indiana field office in Bloomington, Indiana, said in an email. "They've been hit by a double whammy of white-nose syndrome and wind energy. WNS has killed millions of bats of multiple species that hibernate during the winter and an ever-growing number of wind turbines continues to kill thousands of bats every fall as they migrate south for the winter."

Scientists say 5.7 million bats have been killed by white-nose syndrome since it was first spotted in upstate New York in 2006. The once-common little brown bat may be reduced to just 1% of its pre-white-nose syndrome population by 2030, according to Bat Conservation International.

Scientists across the Midwest, including in Chicago, have been monitoring bat populations in order to obtain a sense of how the creatures are faring. At the Lincoln Park Zoo, Liza Lehrer, the assistant director of the Urban Wildlife Institute, and a team of scientists are monitoring bats at sites across Chicagoland, setting up acoustic monitoring stations to count species and monitor bat activity at locations in the city and suburbs. Lehrer uses recordings of the bats' calls to identify and electronically visualize the types of species in order to tally how many are at different locations.

Lehrer said data from the monitoring program has shown that most bat species are experiencing a downward trend across Cook County. Recorded calls from three species in particular, the little brown bat, the northern long-eared bat and the tri-colored bat, have dropped significantly. During previous summers, Lehrer said close to 100 calls per species were tallied, while this year only 10 calls each were recorded by the program.

Two of those species, the little brown bat and the tri-colored bat, may be the ones most affected by new changes to the rules of the Endangered Species Act. Not currently protected at the federal level, they would be subject to the modified rules for listing new species. The new rules, touted by President Donald Trump's administration as lifting regulatory burdens, likely will make it harder to designate critical habitat and require specific criteria for each new species, scientists and environmental advocates said. Those new rules may make it harder for the little brown bat and the northern long-eared bat to earn protections, even as work continues to bolster the fascinating creatures' chances to thrive.

The modified rules "will be very burdensome," Frick said. "They'll be less protections identified."

The U.S. Department of the Interior says the changes to the regulations are designed to "increase transparency and effectiveness." The new regulations impose a "heightened standard" for unoccupied areas to be designated as critical habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must now craft species-specific rules for each future threatened species, instead of more broad language. The new rules also say the economic aspect of listing a species for protection should be taken into consideration, a phrase that has bat scientists bristling.

"I hope that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will consider the economic ramifications of not listing the species," said Joy O"Keefe, associate professor of biology and director of the Center for Bat Research, Outreach and Conservation at Indiana State University.

Bats often roost near roads or bridges, using underpasses and culverts for protection. They also have begun to flock to the towering wind turbines that are being built across the Midwest, mistaking the towers for trees. The hoary bat, which migrates long distances south from Canada across the Midwest, is particularly susceptible to wind turbines in Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

These new threats, O"Keefe said, could place the bats in serious trouble.

Scientists and environmental advocates said the changes to the Endangered Species Act are not likely to affect already protected species, unless they are de-listed in the future and then need protection again.

By late October and early November, most bats that have spent the spring and summer across the area have headed for caves downstate or warmer locales elsewhere. It is there that they become the most susceptible to white-nose syndrome, the disease that has been ravaging bats across the eastern U.S. for more than a decade.

BATS DISPERSE SEEDS--REGENERATORS OF BIODIVERSITY

White-nose syndrome arrived in Illinois during the winter of 2012-13. The disease has not impacted bats living in Illinois as much as it has in New York, but it still has scientists worried. White-nose syndrome is a fungus that strikes bats when they hibernate, usually in caves. Frick describes it as a really bad case of athlete's foot, or lesions, that cover the bat, causing them to wake up from their winter slumber. The bats, hiding in tightly packed groups in caves or mines, especially in the southern part of the state, wake up because they become too cold, then begin using energy and starve.

Scientists say climate change also is affecting bats, in some ways that are not yet fully understood. Warming temperatures may affect bats' sensitivity to roost temperatures or the conditions in caves and the insect populations they need for food.

Like migratory birds, bats make their way south, often using the shoreline of Lake Michigan as a navigational aid, meaning that some even end up in the concrete jungle of the Loop. Late last month, Stephanie Beilke, conservation science manager at Audubon Great Lakes, photographed a bat downtown during volunteer work with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors

BATS ARE IMPORTANT POLLINATORS FOR OUR FARMERS

.

"We find a few bats here and there every day during collision monitoring which occurs downtown, though not as many as the birds we find. The bats that I found were near my office, close to the Sears Tower, but that's just because that's where I was monitoring," Beilke said in an email message. "It can be a bit unpredictable when and where they show up."

Bats, Beilke said, stand to benefit in similar ways as birds do in terms of habitat conservation and efforts to fight climate change.

For a long time, bats were often portrayed in a negative light—think huge, blood-sucking fangs and beady eyes—but that image has begun to change, advocates say. Scientists say many people tend to be more fascinated by bats than scared of them, perhaps helped by education and outreach efforts, especially presentations in front of school groups. And the Halloween season is prime time for bats, from signs to graphics on television to the holiday decorations that line grocery and big-box stores.

"There's more of a cool factor when it comes to bats these days than an ick factor," Frick said

And Lehrer said she also believes that the more people hear about bats under threat, the more they begin to think about conservation and ways in which they can help during their everyday lives, much the same way people have become concerned with dwindling bee populations.

That bats have been "under a lot of conservation threats has really helped their image, unfortunately, or fortunately," Lehrer said. "I'm not sure which."

The November 5th COUGAR REWILDING NEWSLETTER below for your reference and information---

[https://gallery.mailchimp.com/2c2c8cf3bcd76e459d327b65f/images/ef96aecf-887f-4659-a451-bdc5b30e658a.png]

From: Cougar Rewilding Foundation;cougarrewilding@gmail.com
Sent: Tuesday, November 05, 2019
To: Meril, Rick

The Cougar Rewilding Foundation was featured in The Roanoke Times in a September 22 article, "WYOM(What's On Your Mind): Should cougars be reintroduced to the east?" CRF's Ben Shrader, mentioned in the piece, has been busy providing instruction to future hunter educators and working hard to ally with conservation groups in Virginia.

The article, however, highlights the common response biologists and advocates face when discussing pumas: "we see them, and so we know they are already here." Such sentiments remind us of what we need not be reminded: the critical need for continued predator education. This multifaceted education includes the holistic approach to understanding healthy ecosystems, biodiversity, and restoration of eastern forests.

A Florida Puma

 While some folks still argue that there is not enough space in the East, to which the writer of the article alludes, we can only point to the lions outside of L.A. While the article illustrates the opinion of "letting nature take its course" as a retort to the suggestion of reintroduction, we maintain that the loss pf pumas in the East was absolutely not a result of natural circumstances, but a concentrated effort to destroy all carnivores.

2014 trailcam picture of a Puma wandering the Maine woods

Indeed, nature is taking its course in the 21st Century way-cougars are returning but just need a little help at reestablishing a sustainable population.

 2012 trailcam picture of a Puma wandering the Kentucky countryside

CRF is advocating for new research on Chronic Wasting Disease

CWD is among a small group of diseases caused by infectious proteins. These devastating diseases, which include Scrapie in sheep and Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle- also known as Mad Cow Disease, affect the brain of their victim and are ultimately fatal. They are incredibly difficult to study and as a result are not well understood. According to the Centers for Disease Control, CWD has been reported in at least twenty-four states. We are careful to analyze cougar restoration to mitigate any hazards associated with CWD while framing reintroduction as a public health benefit. Because it has spread so quickly in a brief period of time, it is hard to quantify and qualify long term effects of affected populations of moose, deer, and elk. Our intentions to reference cougar restoration as a public health issue is not a public health issue but a realistic and pragmatic approach for future planning of rewilding and environmental justice.

Western Cousins

Habitat fragmentation and genetic isolation future all wild felid populations. Florida Panthers occupy a precarious spot in a troubled but resilient history, balancing between hope and calamity. But western populations are threatened as well. The Mountain Lion Foundation (MLF) states that southern California pumas living in the Santa Ana and Santa Monica Mountains could become extinct between twelve and fifteen years, due to car collisions, poisoning, and inbreeding.

 It would be naive to think that any population of wild animals, especially larger mammals, are safe from extinction, and especially so in a climate of antipathy from elected officials. It is ignorance at best, and hostility towards the environment at worst. MLF proposes to change the status of pumas from 'specially protected mammal' to one as 'threatened' or 'endangered' under the California Endangered Species law. A public hearing is scheduled for February 2020.

 This situation becomes more urgent with the documentation of two more mountain lion deaths in the past two months. One death was confirmed to be a result of rodenticide, and the other lion had an undetermined amount of rodenticide in her body. California advocated pushed for protections from second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides (SGARs). While it will not pass this year, it will have a chance next year.

Other News Around the States

A male cougar was photographed in July in Michigan, where they are a protected species. Specialists with the DNR state an average of three confirmed puma reports in the last three years.

In August, reports from Florida addressed certain afflictions of panthers and bobcats alike. Researchers stated rat poison and toxic algae were two possible causes, although at the time of this newsletter, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has not been able to determine the exact cause for what has been described as a neurological disorder.

In October, the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Commission voted to extend their mountain lion hunting season from March 31 to April 30, and increased the permits from 57 to 75 in Custer State Park. New Hunting quotas would allow the killing of about thirty percent of the lion population, a percentage CRF and MLF believe are unnecessary and unsustainable. Given that South Dakota is critical for cougar expansion the continued assault on pumas in states like South Dakota must be resisted.

Hope

Hope looms in an active youth movement as we see younger generations mobilize for climate justice. This is a tremendous opportunity for us to welcome them into the rewilding movement, of which many younger folks may not be aware. But through our experiences in our various work, interactions with younger generations have been largely positive. Hope is an active process, and, as Chris Spatz advises, "the Cougar Rewilding Foundation recommends joining your state's 2025 wildlife action plan committee...until we broaden the base of financial support for wildlife conservation, our efforts to restore the puma and wolf and other top carnivores will be uphill struggles."

Speaking of State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs), the Recovering America's Wildlife Act is the latest iteration of a federal proposal to dedicate $1.3 billion in annual funding for those 12,000 at-risk species covered in the SWAPs. A tax on hydrofracking revenues first proposed by a Blue Ribbon Panel of sportsmen, auto, and extractive industry executives for RAWA appeared in 2017, receiving bi-partisan endorsements by 117 members of Congress, though the bill never got out of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands. The new version, whose funding source has been shifted to the General Treasury in the hope that switching from fracking revenues would entice more support from progressives, has attracted 122 House co-sponsors. In 2000, two versions of the bill, a 'backpack' tax and an offshore gas leasing tax, were shot down by outdoor gear industry and conservation lobbies. Since then, the 12,000 at-risk species receive about $63 million in annual appropriated funding.


For the (re)Wild,

G. White

There are only 14 Red Wolves in the wild in the USA, all of them on the barrier islands of North Carolina.............The Center For Biological Diversity research reveals that locales in Virginia, West Virginia, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida along with North Carolina are sites for Red Wolf re-introduction............ This wolf once lived across the Southeast and Midwest from Texas up through parts of New York and likely further north into the Algonquin Park region in Ontario, Canada............A key factor in the demise of this species(along with habitat degradation and us humans killing them off) – the tendency of red wolves to breed with coyotes...............It is believed that the Red Wolf’s ancient ancestor was a Coyote/Wolf type canid, therefore easily allowing western coyotes migrating east to breed and hybridize with the rapid dwindling red wolf population

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/report-20000-square-miles-red-wolf-habitat-open-urgently-needed-reintroductions-2019-10-29/

https://www.wfxrtv.com/news/wildlife-advocates-push-to-reintroduce-the-red-wolf-to-virginia-other-states/

20,000 Square Miles of Red Wolf Habitat Is Open for

 Urgently Needed Reintroductions

Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, West

 Virginia Have Suitable Sites

October 29, 2019; Center for Biological Diversity

The Tree physiology that generates the beautiful, ephemeral and unequaled Leaf Color change in our New England and Great Lakes Forests Decreasing day length is a main driver of the timing of the color change and the resulting leaf drop. But temperature and precipitation also play roles. Trees and shrubs react to these three variables by curbing production of chlorophyll, the green pigment of the leaves. As the green recedes, yellow and orange pigments which have been there all along, are unmasked. Red-reflecting pigments(the red leaves we see) protect the leaves from damage by sunlight as the tree siphons nutrients from the leaves Drought can definitely lessen the vibrancy of the colors A corky layer at the stem of each leaf thickens as the colors hit peak, causing leaf drop to ensue After the leaves fall, the color pigments break down, leaving tannins that turn brown. Those tannins slow the breakdown of leaves, allowing them to become a mulch layer on the forest floor

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__r20.rs6.net_tn.jsp-3Ff-3D001lkAdWE7V3hZ66BeBUHvG1utjsUZgVziq5ARw6C-2DVj4cTPWr-2DGC39zaTuR24t-2DBD9Szc0IbVeN3HHTmpKqvaQaOlLYHYz42y-5F0XKcCWRd8nm0COVdyfleO6IBvGUu4j8ie8PBWQucJpzvPiehEsSeLo8uFrvkAiuq843mJQJeIjkNhPq5p2FIlv3IoJT-5FRAWrqNSrlHd7UvGwVohgA8b5sg-3D-3D-26c-3D-2Dcw-5FejayAj1TPg-2D-5FUXfyaHiXo77670ENCXkRVaQ4UkQqa2OtbPn6Cg-3D-3D-26ch-3DFI6m03EFT0B1uUqRp-5FtKgH6pU0eBWqLtxxybE01PT4iMIWmE7oGaIQ-3D-3D&d=DwMFaQ&c=-SicqtCl7ffNuxX6bdsSog&r=-DxtnAHbuRRkyWQnoegVz79cCKJiYDnPm_QtmQKN7-I&m=fMmArHyaRq-f6F3vx6kdGzBcM5vu8XzyGdfqcv94y-o&s=gDGbdVjYDGKyHlfl_PvfmQvH_IkgbSTiSrIxbc7nBxI&e=

A Close Look at Fall Colors

by Joe Rankin

October 11, 2019

2 Comments

Illustration by Adelaide Tyrol

Where I live, autumn typically starts in late August, when pockets of red maples start to turn scarlet around the marshes and lakes. Uh oh. As they say in Westeros, “winter is coming.”

But not before we get to enjoy fall. Yes, a New England autumn is a postcard cliché. Yes, the tour buses and land yachts full of leaf peepers clog the roads. But, really, who can blame them? No matter how many you’ve seen, fall in the Northeast is still one of nature’s most awesome spectacles.

And, so, so ephemeral.

We know basically how the whole thing unfolds, and why. But despite all that has been discovered about tree physiology, we still haven’t unpacked everything.

“A lot of general patterns we can see and explain, but there’s a lot of complexity that we certainly don’t know about the fall color,” said Jay Wason III, a tree physiologist and assistant professor in the School of Forest Resources at the University of Maine.

Basically, we have autumn in temperate zones because in the months of low sunlight, cold temperatures, and ice and snow storms, large, flat leaves would be a liability, said Wason.

Decreasing day length is a main driver of the timing of the color change and the resulting leaf drop. But temperature and precipitation also play roles. You can see this by looking at the side of a mountain, where trees at higher elevations typically change color earlier, reflecting colder temperatures, even though all of the trees on the mountainside are reading the same day length. The same holds true in low-lying areas, where colder air pools and creates fall-like temperatures sooner.

Plants sense changes in day length using special molecules called phytochromes, and react by curbing production of chlorophyll, the green pigment that is the heavy lifter when it comes to photosynthesis. As chlorophyll disappears, underlying yellow and orange pigments, called carotenoids, are unmasked. They’ve been there all along, but only become visible now.

Reds are something else. Known as anthocyanins, they’re produced in the fall, but we’re not really certain why. Wason said one hypothesis is that these red-reflecting pigments are helping to protect the leaves from damage by sunlight as the tree is working to siphon all the nutrients it can from its leaves, nitrogen being the most important.


Temperature and precipitation help determine how much of this red pigment is produced, and thus how colorful the fall will be. To make anthocyanins, the tree needs sugars, and to produce those sugars it needs moisture and sunlight. That’s why a fall drought can definitely put a damper on the season’s colors, said Wason.

As the leaves change colors, each forms a corky layer – the abscission layer – at the end of the stem, which weakens the bond to the twig and eventually cuts it free. After the leaves fall, the yellow, orange, and red pigments break down, leaving nothing but tannins that turn brown. It’s those same tannins that slow the breakdown of leaves and allow them to become a mulch layer on the forest floor.

The careful observer will note that, in spring, tree species seem to leaf out at different times. Ashes, for instance, are often one of the last to put on leaves. It’s like they’re not certain about commitment. When winter is coming, everyone is committed.

“We tend to see more variability in the spring and less in the fall,” said Wason. Perhaps that’s because tree species tend to be a little more responsive to temperature variation in the springtime, he said.

No one’s got the definitive answer, but it’s probably related to each tree species’ growth strategy, he speculates. In springtime, ashes spend a lot of time and energy building large water transport cells in their stems, only later moving on to leaves. Once built, however, that big plumbing system can move a lot of water and nutrients. In other words, they catch up. By fall, things have evened out.Scientists are still probing for answers to questions about the fall foliage season. The fact that the leaf extravaganza is a big economic boon to states in the northeastern US is a good excuse for the research. So is climate change and how a warmer earth will affect the annual spectacle.

Warmer temperatures could cause a shift in the timing of fall foliage; summer or fall droughts could affect color saturation; tree species will move over time in response to local climate change. Exactly how things will play out long-term is hard to predict. But autumn is on now. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Joe Rankin writes on forests, nature, and sustainability.

"During the American megafaunal extinction event around 12,700 years ago, 90 genera of mammals weighing over 44 kilograms became extinct"............"The Late Pleistocene fauna in North America included giant sloths, short-faced bears, several species of tapirs, peccaries, the American lion, giant tortoises, American cheetahs, saber-toothed cats. llamas, at least two species of bison, the stag-moose, the shrub-ox and Harlan's muskox, 14 species of pronghorn, horses, mammoths and mastodons, the beautiful armadillo, giant armadillo, giant beavers and giant condors".............. "In contrast, today the largest North American land animal is the American bison"..........."The synergy of causes for the extinctions were climate change, overhunting and contagious diseases carried by migrating humans and their animals"

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/01/what-killed-great-beasts-north-america

What Killed the Great Beasts of North AmericaMichael BalterJan. 28, 201