Vegetation
Vegetation plays a vital role in the Earth's systems, including the climate, food chain, and soil health. It has been on the earth for about 450 million years, its journey from water being given essential aid by fungi. Until then, the planet had been bare ground. Vegetation, including trees, spread over the whole earth. In the last 2000 years many of the trees have been removed to allow for development for a burgeoning human population. That tree removal has increased dramatically over the last 100 years to allow for agriculture to replace such areas as the Amazon Rainforest. It is estimated that 17% of the forest has been wholly lost, with another 17% being degraded.
Vegetation is vital to the planet for several reasons:
climate: plants give off oxygen during photosynthesis, while absorbing carbon dioxide. They are continuing the good work that cyanobacteria started.
Plants provide the basis of food for many species. Even those animals that can be described as meat eaters, feed on animals that themselves have eaten vegetation all their lives.
Working with fungi, they release nutrients into the soil.
Plants can capture airborne pollutants.
It also has a cooling effect, valuable in cities, particular.
Is it then, difficult to find a bad word to say about vegetation? Yes, it is difficult. Individual plants, however, may see it differently. Tiny plants, competing with trees, or even vigorous nettles for light and nutrients, have a constant battle for life. Every organism, whether our tiniest unicellular bacteria, or a complex mammal, wants to live, and vegetation is no exception.
All vegetation is valuable to our planet. It gives out oxygen and is a store for carbon. But the value of trees extends further than that.
Animal life in all countries find a refuge in trees. Foxes, bats, squirrels, and many more find solace in the branches of a tree. Oak trees alone support 2,300 different species of wildlife.
Andy Bond of the Woodland trust in England, attempted in 1922 to put a monetary value on our trees. He calculated they were worth £322 billion, many of them putting right some of the harm we humans have done to the Planet. The study found that sequestering of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, reducing the risk of flooding, and recreation were benefits to humans given by trees. Sadly, unlike fungi, we do not always return the compliment.
The UK's woodland is home to a wealth of wildlife, from shade-loving plants and delicate fungi, to nesting birds, elusive mammals and rare insects. It is vital for biodiversity.
However, one third of our woodland wildlife is in decline, and one in ten is at the risk of extinction. (Woodland Trust}.
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Home - click here
The Planet's Point of View - click here
The Beginnings of Life on Earth - click here
The First Big Advance - Cyanobacteria, click here
Fabulous Fungi - click here
Insects - click here
Earthworms - click here
Birds - click here
Mammals - including humans - click here
Water based life - click here
The Calculus - click here