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Flooding impact on tree health


Gnarlyoak
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Not sure on the long term affects on the soil health, but it is a very good question to ask.

 

The main problems we've had in our woods has been as a result of lack of maintenance of historic drainage ditches & bunds.... this has lead to soil washing out/ amplified with this seasons heavy rains.

Coupling the heavy rainfall with the repetitive strong winds has resulted in numerous wind blown trees.... about a dozen for us so far, including some pretty big ones.

 

The ditch work we've carried out so far has already made a positive difference to the soil waterlogging (quite a big task). I have no doubt it will be of benefit to the woodland in the long term.

Cheers, steve

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Good topic and good summary article gnarly oak.

 

Had a look at some of my notes from Uni. The lack of air in soil occurs within hours of flooding leading to anoxic conditions whereby the roots and bacteria cannot take up O2. This can then lead to hypoxic conditions, namely the production of ethylene by the anaerobic bacteria that remain.

 

Plants, and I stress plants (I did plant science, not forestry), not necessarily trees, have 2 ways of coping. Anatomical adaptation or biochemical:

 

Anatomically they have the adventitious rooting, hypertrophy (production of a swollen stem base with air spaces), aerenchyma or, as in Alder and legumes, nodule formation with mutualistic bacteria e.g. Rhizobium sp. which are capable of using Nitrogen instead of Oxygen for ATP formation.

 

Biochemically they can alter their form of respiration to anaerobic (fermentation). This results in a short term energy source resulting in survival during a flood period but requires lots of carbohydrates to maintain and creates harmful substances like ethanol as a byproduct.

 

Where shoots are concerned, flooding modifies almost every aspect of their behaviour. Regulated by chemical messengers, interruption in root product and accumulation of products usually transported to roots may aid the affected species to acclimate or be injurious to its recovery and set lower limits to post-flooding performance.

 

The important thing to note is that stress accumulates over time so with highly freak weather like these last 6 rainy winters we have to be expecting some noticeable change in tree health. I don't think entire hedgerows will be dying but the resilience of trees may be more at risk due to the quantities of toxins they've created, cellular adaptations they've made that are only advantageous when flooded and root death from anoxia & hypoxia.

Cheers.

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