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Why Are Mature Sequoias Dying At Kings Canyon, Sequoia, And Yosemite National Parks?

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Scientists are trying to find the cause of sequoia deaths in Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite national parks/NPS

Scientists are trying to find the cause of sequoia deaths in Kings Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite national parks/NPS

Researchers are trying to determine why some mature sequoia trees in Sequoia, Kings Canyon, and Yosemite national parks have died.

The studies were prompted by the deaths of at least 30 mature sequoias in Kings Canyon and Sequoia and several in Yosemite between 2014 and 2019.

To understand which trees are in danger, the first step is discovering where water in their xylem (water transport tissue) actually comes from—whether it's drawn from long-lasting underground reserves, or shallow surface moisture susceptible to drought. Believe it or not, scientists can tell the difference between surface and groundwater by tiny differences in the atoms that make water molecules (to get technical, it's called an "isotopic signature").

This past summer researchers began looking for answers high in the canopy of the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite. By analyzing isotopic signatures from xylem samples taken before and after prescribed burns, they can begin to answer the big questions:

  • Do trees in wet and dry environments depend on the same water source?
  • Does that change with the season?
  • Does fire damage change where a tree gets its water?
  • Can fuel reduction before a burn mitigate that damage?

Until data collection and analyses finish, the National Park Service won't know the answers. But it's a drama that's playing out in real time—threatening the parks' ability to protect sequoia groves in the face of climate-driven droughts. Even these forest giants balance on a narrow margin of survival.

Comments

I have seen more chemtrails in the last years than ever before, I know you say conspiracy theories but NO, it is affecting the air, the soil, and the water. Does this affect the soil and the trees, This years lessening since COVID has to have helped. These trees are amazing, we never pay attention to damage till it is already affected all of us and our environment. Please feed them, find out what it is, and keep these icons safe

 

...what goes up, must come down and we're being bombarded daily with a chemical and radioactive fallout surpassed only by Agent Orange, the defoliating chemicals developed by Monsanto to wipe out the jungles during the Vietnam War...

Since aluminum has an affinity for water, all life forms attract these oxides. This causes contamination of even organic fruits, vegetables, and livestock if they're exposed to the open air, because plants readily absorb aluminum salts from the soil into their vascular systems. Everything absorbs aluminum salts and it's in the air.

Processed foods are filled with aluminum salts and aluminum sulfate is added to water to make it clear. Apparently we are in the "Aluminum Age" and it's everywhere, but so unhealthy according to Dr. Christopher Exley, Professor of Bioinorganic Chemistry at Keele University in the UK...


You're crazy!!! You know the pilots and their families breath the same air you and I do, right? Why would they poison their own families? Re


Very interesting theory.  I have been researching into infertility in humans & its correlation with metal toxicity in the body. I never made the connection to the filtered water we consumed on a daily basis.  I'm from California & the drought has been going on for almost 7 yrs. The land near sequoia forest has been dry & the crop fields in Bakersfield have dried up. 


The existence of chemtrails is a conspiracy theory. They are simply water-based contrails routinely left by high-flying aircraft under certain atmospheric conditions.


I have lost many family members to cancer and strongly suspected aluminum and radiation to be contributing factors to health problems for all species.


Good luck trying to educate these simpletons. They believe what they want to, and refuse to accept facts. As a pilot... For an airline... I can assure you there are no "chemtrails" nor is there a super secret switch we have to turn them on and off, because we all breathe the same air and we're not fond of dying any more than the mouth breathers. Contrails aren't Killing trees. 


It's probably got more to do with climate change. There is plenty of bass stuff going on that is real, no need to invoke chemtrails.


"Chem trails"? There is no such thing! What you see is water from the jet exhaust freezing in the upper atmosphere. But if you don't believe me....the pilots throw a switch in the cockpit to create white "chem trails"....it's the button marked "CHEM ON | OFF"


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