Reflection Essay 1- Tree Huggers

1. Summary of the Article: The Articles discussed the issue of lianas’ massive overgrown over the trees in Amazon forests. There are both good news and bad news about it: the good news is that: the lianas provide food and water for animals passing the forest during the dry season,when water and food are relatively hard to find for animals. (Fountain,A Tree Hugger,2011). The bad news, however, is that the stems of the vines have grabbed soil nutrients,water and light away from the trees, which are essential for trees to grow and survive.(Fountain,A Tree Hugger,2011)Besides, the lianas have caused death to trees because as they grow surrounding the trees, they get more weight and eventually they become too heavy for trees to burden and they will bring the tree down(Fountain, A Tree Hugger,2011). What’s more, the lianas also store less carbon,thus when they increase in population,the forests’ carbon storage ability get reduced.(Fountain,A Tree Hugger, 2011) Last but not the least, because only the trees that can survive from the lianas “robbery” will stay, it reduced the diversity of the forest(Fountain, A Tree Hugger, 2011). And those trees usually store less carbon as they grow faster. The scientists begin examining the potential reason of the massive growing of the lianas. And the first potential reason is the increase in CO2 level in the environment.Compare to trees, lianas can use the CO2 better.(Fountain,A Tree Hugger) Besides, the lianas have strong ability to absorb water out of the soil, which makes them more competitive.(Fountain,A Tree Hugger,2011). To test the lianas’specific threat to trees, it takes long time,usually decades.The scientists have tried to cut the amount of lianas, and to change water conditions, to test its influence on lianas population, with results remain to be seen(Fountain,A Tree Hugger,2011).