Jump to content
Snow?
Local
Radar
Cold?
IGNORED

‘Oldest Living Things in the World’


knocker

Recommended Posts

Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

 

The spindly trunk of a Norway spruce reaches above the lichen-covered rocks. Nothing about the tree is remarkable aside from it being the only thing to reach more than a few feet off the ground on a windswept plateau. Yet Rachel Sussman traveled the roughly 3,500 miles from her Brooklyn studio to western Sweden to photograph it.

 

Its age is what drew Sussman to it. At 9,550 years old, this Norway spruce is the single oldest known tree on the planet. But it’s not just the age of the tree that matters, it’s what the image reveals.

 

Posted Image

A 9,950-year-old Norway spruce.The mass of branches near the ground grew the same way for roughly 9,500 years, but the new, spindly trunk in the center is only 50 or so years old, caused by warming at the top of this mountain plateau in Western Sweden. 

Click image to enlarge. Credit: Rachel Sussman

 

http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oldest-living-things-in-the-world-tell-a-tale-of-climate-17320

Edited by knocker
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: North York Moors
  • Location: North York Moors

How can the present trunk growth be put down as an example of 'warming'?It could be due to reduced browsing by deer for example, or maybe in all those centuries it has done this from time to time before, but after a while the stem falls but the lower branches live on.

I would think most accept that there have been periods warmer than now in the last 10,000 years.

No doubt studying it for propaganda as a global warming icon is obligatory to fund the trip.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Camborne
  • Location: Camborne

Not only that those annoying scientists (surely not experts?) are perpetuating this iconic propaganda. It really is beyond the pale.

 

 

(Reuters) - Scientists have found a cluster of spruces in the mountains in western Sweden which, at an age of 8,000 years, may be the world's oldest living trees.

 

The hardy Norway spruces were found perched high on a mountain side where they have remained safe from recent dangers such as logging, but exposed to the harsh weather conditions of the mountain range that separates Norway and Sweden.

 

Carbon dating of the trees carried out at a laboratory in Miami, Florida, showed the oldest of them first set root about 8,000 years ago, making it the world's oldest known living tree, Umea University Professor Leif Kullman said.

California's "Methuselah" tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine, is often cited as the world's oldest living tree with a recorded age of between 4,500 and 5,000 years.

 

Two other spruces, also found in the course of climate change studies in the Swedish county of Dalarna, were shown to be 4,800 and 5,500 years old.

 

"These were the first woods that grew after the Ice Age," said Lars Hedlund, responsible for environmental surveys in the county of Dalarna and collaborator in climate studies there.

 

"That means that when you speak of climate change today, you can in these (trees) see pretty much every single climate change that has occurred."

 

Although a single tree trunk can become at most about 600 years old, the spruces had survived by pushing out another trunk as soon as the old one died, Professor Kullman said.

 

Rising temperatures in the area in recent years had allowed the spruces to grow rapidly, making them easier to find in the rugged terrain, he added.

 

"For quite some time they have endured as bushes maybe 1/2 meter tall," he said.

"But over the past few decades we have seen a much warmer climate, which has meant that they have popped up like mushrooms in the soil."

 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/04/11/us-sweden-tree-idUSL1190625120080411

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......
  • Weather Preferences: Hot & Sunny, Cold & Snowy
  • Location: Mytholmroyd, West Yorks.......

I do get the feeling that Four will never , ever, accept that we have impacted the planets atmosphere and so the planets weather patterns. No matter what evidence he has placed in front of him ( I do not believe he will go and look for evidence himself?). You just have to learn to accept his drive by one liners Knocks? Treat it like the ticking of a clock and let it just slip into to your unconscious....... like the ticking of a clock you'll notice when it stops and know something is the matter......

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Hobart, Tasmania
  • Location: Hobart, Tasmania

I think there's been a mistake. The oldest tree  ( or at least the continually surviving offshoots from the original individual, which I assume is the same classification for longevity as the Norway spruce, above  ), actually grows on a mountain in NW Tasmania. Age of near 10,500 years.

 

Tasmania takes out a lot of world ecological titles.

 

 

 

 

Discovered in 1995 by forestry worker Mike Peterson, the ancient Huon Pine has marched its way over more than a hectare, down a hill towards the Lake Johnston glacial lake, reproducing genetically identical male copies - clones - of itself. While the oldest individual tree or stem on the site now may be 1000 to 2000 years old, the organism itself has been living there continuously for 10,500 years.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/the-oldest-tree/story-e6frg8h6-1226130673929

 

See the picture of it by pressing the Picture tab in the above newspaper article.

There are other more verifiable sources out there, if anyone is interested, relevant keyword search will confirm factoid.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.
  • Location: Derbyshire Peak District South Pennines Middleton & Smerrill Tops 305m (1001ft) asl.

Blog..http://www.oldestlivingthings.com/about/

 

The Pine Tree in question was never said to be the oldest, but was used as an example of the effects of Climate Change with-in the studies.

 

http://vimeo.com/90498615

Edited by Polar Maritime
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...