Posted on 10/21/2009 9:08:59 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Scientists often see the need to confirm what we already know. For example, every 11-year-old (or 41-year-old) comic
A new study from the University of Edinburgh provides evidence that cosmic rays play a greater role in stimulating tree growth than any other local climate factor -- including precipitation and temperature.
Professor John Grace of the university's Institute of Atmospheric and Environmental Science and his graduate students, Sigrid Dengel and Dominik Aeby, made the intriguing discovery when studying rings on freshly harvested spruce trees.
The trees were specially harvested in 2006 from the Forest of Ae in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, by Forest Research, the research branch of the UK's Forestry Commission. The trees sections were immediately frozen after harvest to prevent shrinkage.
Scientists then scanned the 53-year old trees, which were planted in 1953. What they found was that like most trees there were variations in growth rates by year. What frustrated scientists was that yearly temperature and precipitation showed minor correlations, but not to the extent they were seeing. There was some other factor also inducing growth.
That factor, it turns out, appears to be Galactic Cosmic Rays (GCRs).
GSRs as follows:
(Excerpt) Read more at dailytech.com ...
'It also suggests the amount of aerosols that humans emit into the atmosphere could impact tree growth, as high levels of aerosols cause "global dimming", an effect that occurs when the levels of light reaching the Earth's surface fall.'
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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
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Thanks Ernest and BGHater. And, as B points out, not only a two-fer, I could almost get away with a four-fer on this one. :') |
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Could the rays somehow impart energy into the trees or in some way stimulate the cells through the wave energy to grow?
I guess the scientists are working on an answer to that question....I find it very mysterious...but I do like big trees.
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