and potentially stop a forest fire,
but not just any tree, it has to be a Mediterranean/Italian
cypress tree, (Cupressus
sempervirens), why so? in the 1980's, researchers planted
varieties of trees in Spain, testing how the different varieties of trees would handle exposure to a deadly pathogen, then, in 2012, disaster struck,
the study area was burned to a crisp, 'when we got there we saw that all the
common oaks, holm oaks, pines, and junipers had completely burnt, but only
1.27% of the Mediterranean cypresses had ignited,' study author Bernabé
Moya told BBC Mundo, the reason they survived was simple,
they found that cypress trees are able to maintain a high water content in
their leaves, even in very hot, dry conditions, other trees, like aspen
or cottonwood are fire-resistant, but their dry, fallen leaves can be
a fire risk, whereas the fallen leaves from the cyprus act like a
sponge and hold on to water, so at least in the Mediterranean
area researchers are looking to use this tree to make natural fire breaks, I wonder if the idea would help in America, Canada, Australia and
other wildfire areas in the world?
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