Transcripts For DW Tomorrow Today 20240713

To tomorrow today the sign shown on d. W. P. There are roughly 3 trillion trees on earth thats around 400 for every human being. Fossil discoveries suggest the 1st trees developed more than 350000000 years ago and changed the world they increase the level of oxygen in the atmosphere through photosynthesis. Pasts in the take in sunlight Carbon Dioxide and water and use these to create oxygen and clean pair. Its the most important chemical process for life on us. Chicks sometimes able to focus and just shots on the significant scale jumps out when its good precious little sunlight so how could they survive peter believe in works for a false treatable. And in germany he raises awareness about forests with the help of distinctly human then allergies. Mother trees recognize their own offspring they link up and help to mature a solution its basically akin to nursing. So tree suckle their samplings really. If we take a look below the surface we find fun guy spinning long threads around the trees roots for the fun guy use them to supply the tree with nutrients that it would otherwise be an able to access in return literally supplies the fund guy with sugar a system that benefits both sides. From guide link up with a number of tree simultaneously resulting in a huge network underground thats become known as the wood wide web. Young trees tap into the network and feed off the sugar provided by the older trees. Older trees with their large ground supply higher levels of sugar to the networks which is why researchers call them mother trees and remarkably additional fungal threads form connecting them to their offspring so that they receive more nutrients than other trees. Of course nursing is a term that only applies to mammals but its a similar principle as young trees flourish thanks to sugar supplied by their mothers. Forests can carry on growing and regenerating themselves for centuries that if they are left to grow every year an estimated 10000000000. 00 trees nothing. Would land that displays no evidence of human interference is known as primary forests these days not many such areas left romania is home to one of the last remaining primary forests in europe tucked away in a remote. Where in the remaining region of transylvania on our way to. Forest thats about a 3 hour drive from the city a cd a group of scientists is doing field studies here in one of the largest and perhaps most beautiful primary forests in europe. For the scientists this landscape holds a treasure that is extremely valuable much of it is yet undiscovered. The forest is a virgin landscape that has seen almost no human intervention the boy in me. Is really special because its one of the last valleys. In zone of your puir is no trail is really wild is really difficult to access. The scientists from the university of prague have been coming here regularly for the past 5 years the remote valley in the fog a Russian Mountains is an ideal place to do research more than a 1000 hectares of untouched landscape from the mountain tops down to the valley floor thats rare in europe these days. Over 95 percent of all european wooded areas are manmade commercial forests so if you want to understand how a natural forest works you need to come to a place like boy and we can only hear can scientists study a forest ecosystem in its original natural form. Is really important to both of us especially in terms of for Climate Change values like these are the only places where we can really observe that how the 3 species we are all naturally put on these conditions after climbing for 3 hours we finally reached the site where the scientists have chosen to count. Theyll be based here for a whole week from here they can explore the surrounding mountains and study the forest to discover its secrets. The next morning the group sets off equipped with numerous measuring instruments they had into the forest. Making headway isnt easy. Whats more theyre clearly not alone. Here in their lives you can see the. Bear footprints and you can see its kind of in line in the big so its going to be any other animal and theyre in this place it was possible looking for some insect under the leaves. 15 bears are thought to live in the boy anita valley but the scientists arent worried they continue their work undeterred and that involves measuring minute details of the forest they know the number of trees in any given area as well as their age height and species they also calculate the distribution and density of dead wood and they take or samples from the center of the trunks in order to reconstruct the history of individual trees. Wow that looked like a long needle doesnt it hurt the tree. Forest a piece of believes trees do indeed feel pain. With every organism can feel pain it has to answer otherwise it would respond to an attack. Is that actually true researchers suspect that when a caterpillar nibbles on a leaf that is registered by pressure reset is with a leaf the tree then pumps a substance into the leaf that renders it an appetizing and quickly spreads it around. Protect the other lease from the predators well within the tree the relevant information is transmitted electrically as in a human body. But feeling pain is not just a question of registering and reacting its an experience it has to have in humans and other animals that involves a brain and scientists have yet to discover the equivalent in trees. Trees do indeed respond to injuries even if they do not feel pain now back to remain here for me a person. With combination of work. Environment. Bit. Through the. Mostly 3 or 400 be involved and moving. The project started about 10 years ago. In europes few remaining primary forests scientists selected Research Plots to focus on these us circular areas roughly the size of a basketball page they now have over a 1000 plots in 9 countries theyve taken just under 40000 word samples the groups archive is the largest primary forest database in europe. Every year we spend approximately 3 months in the field with a lot of the big groups right now we are here in. 25 people. 3 groups which are split into different beliefs. Martin may kalash this especially interested in looking at how primary forests cope with Climate Change. The question is could they be at risk in the future. Complicated thinking behind it is that the extremes in temperatures are increasing this increase in natural disturbances pose an existential threat to primary forests to answer this question the scientists 1st studies the past how often has boy a meteor been affected by bark beetle or drought for example in the last few centuries and how quickly was the forest able to recover their findings actually. We found out that the systems are well adapted and they can regenerate after this the some of the ones. The scientists data reveals that the forest has repeatedly been hit by disaster and yet suffered no lasting damage. Believes this amazing ability to regenerate is one of the key differences between primary forests and those money by human beings. Differently these forests are more resilient than many or commercial in this forest. Because even in cases of for high severity of large scale disturbances we can see in our data. At least several all to 3 survived even one for example disproves or was disturbed the beach forest was still there and. The combination of the 3 species after the disturbances creates then also. More diverse composition of the future for. As yet make an action his team dont know if the regenerative power of these natural forest will be sufficient to face the challenges of the future but they remain optimistic more natural growth and diversity also in our commercial forests is likely to be the best protection against the effects of Climate Change. During the day the forest cools down while at night its roughly in one degree warmer thats when many woodland become active but what it treys do at night if they have a family and are able to defend themselves do they also see. That was a question sent in by pieces still was from the united states. Do treaties sleep. We all know human beings need sleep our inner body clock regulates when we feel tired following the earths cycle of day and night. Animals also have body clocks that set the read them for waking and sleeping. Many flowers close their petals and hang their heads at certain times of day their resting periods also follow the rhythm of day and night. But what about trees. Well it was only a few years ago that scientists were finally able to answer that question with the help of laser scanners. From dusk till dawn they scanned trees with infrared light. In each case they found that the whole tree droops that night. The clones millions of laser scanning points revealed that the position of the leaves and branches changed as the night progressed they moved lower by as much as 10 centimeters. In the morning they gradually returned to their original position. But whether the trees like the animals around them are awakened by and enter a body clock is still not clear. But what is clear is that trees do indeed a few to rest at certain times of the day. Now its time to look at the forest fill the roots of trees can be enormous and link up with other rich systems. That he shows that around 60 percent of all trees would wind up into linked by networks of fundy threads as we saw and he had these networks are thought to be several 100000000 years old to last the ground beneath our feet may not appear that ancient. But for tree its a vital source of life. Forester not fit papel and geography professor clements geitner pay close attention to the forest floor and what lies beneath it holds the key to a healthy forest. Theyre going to explain to us the profound influence trees have on the quality of the soil. In a small patient is old spruce forest they examined the soil to a depth of one and a half metres. Of them as you can scoot in proof you know we can see here the various layers on the surface there are spruce needles the stuff the trees shed its a lot sometimes 5 or 6 centimeters deep sixed and. The needles decomposed to create a layer of humans which makes the soil more acidic. The next layer down is the mineral soil with lots of tree roots spruces have very shallow roots and cant access the water or nutrients from lower down that is a disadvantage it means the roots dont loosen the soil or create channels for the humus to trickle down so the spruce can take advantage of the benefits of this good location and importance on. Nearby is a mixed forest of coniferous and deciduous trees which look big battle planted 25 years ago the fallen leaves quickly turn to humus. The soil layers here look quite different the earth is looser and crisscrossed by lots more roots. The site is this year and its it to the roots are much deeper and thats typical for a forest with deciduous trees that means the roots can access much more water the reservoir of vailable to the roots and hence the trees for evaporation and cooling is about 3 times as large and strong for it includes effect. A particular interest of the fine routes through which trees absorb water and nutrients forestry engineer Daniel Berlant has compared the volume of fine roots from spruce and maple the difference is considerable these 2 clumps come from a maple tree a depth of 10 and 40 centimeters while these 2 are from a spruce. The more fine roots the tree has the more water it can access. But the scientists also find another difference between the 2 forests the one with deciduous trees as lots of earthworms which help to keep the soil rich and healthy. Agricultural scientists on a curler wants to measure the population of earthworms in this mixed forest. Mustard water onto a sample of soil among the deciduous trees drives the worms to the surface as they try to escape the mustard irritates their skin though its actually not harmful here we see how plentiful the worms are. Organic farming has focused our attention in recent years on the role earthworms play in improving foyle fertility theres been less interest in their role and forests but it is an interesting question. Because where the soil is in good shape the trees will likely be so as well earthworms dont like acidic pine needles a tall but they are drawn to maple leaves for example as they dig maze of tunnels they air right the soil make it less compact and more porous repairing symbiotic fun guy also make use of these pop ways whats more the worms help mix humans into the soil making it easier for plants to access nutrients. So deciduous trees and hans the soil and attract worms when it comes to the challenge posed by Climate Change it is factors like these that could help make our forests more resilient. So earthworms are good for the soil and helpful to tree but some animals and insects are damaging to trees especially bark beetles. There are caterpillar that. Beliefs and that can impede the growth of the tree when passions arrive on the scene trees defend themselves by pumping toxins into their lives. Amazingly neighboring trees do the same even if theyre not under attack forestry expert peter bolaven explains. Trees talk to each other and you can understand them by listening in on a bornhorst in. Does that mean that trees are some kind of language and what exactly do they talk about. It turns out that odor signals in response to pest and frustrations and those molecules trigger a protective reaction in adjacent trees although its not clear how this works so but what if the neighbors are on the wrong side wind wise are they then not party to the conversation. Thats where the wood wide web comes in trees and signals to the fungus nestling around the roots which relay them via the underground network. This rapidly puts the other trees on alert so that they can prepare their own defenses. But does that count as a language with humans this involves not just exchanging signals but words they convey information through conscious Means Associated with certain sounds so someone who speaks a Foreign Language might understand treat as meaning tree. So trees do not have language as we understand it and yet they do communicate with each other. Out planets has a tree line last its used to the north and south of which trees are unable to present in the arctic for example there are no sizeable trees and the plants one tribes and moss is. But here too theres plenty of life in the ground like these lemmings for example. Our next report takes us to greenland where scientists are concerned about the fate of these arctic rodents that are something of a barometer for Climate Change. And hours flight and theyll reach their destination for ecologist Ben Wyatt Sigler and wildlife biologist your highness lying its the final stage of a day long journey their flight takes them across greenlands last years and frozen fields and they see that the pack ice is already starting to thaw although the short summer here has yet to really begin. Theyll soon be touching down in the current pile valley on the island of trail. Even the landing is something of an adventure. They fought a long flour sugar and milk coffee and tense along with lots of scientific equipment the team are the only humans on the island if they forgotten anything important theyll just have to do without it their return journey is several weeks away until then theyll be camping here in tents. They soon discover theyre not alone the tracks of a polar bear shooting one would be the very last resort the team set up an electric fence to keep the bears away. For more lemmings by contrast a more than welcome they are in fact the stars the very heart of the project the team of course one near the camp ben was that the 1st came to greenland to research lemmings 30 years ago and hes still studying these interesting creatures lemmings are rodents and live mainly in northern regions greenland is home to the arctic lemming species in winter white as snow they turn gray and brown as temperatures rise during the summer they live in burrows underground always wary of predators especially arctic fox its snowy owls. And long tail skewers the lemmings are safer in winter their front claws grow and enable them to dig through the snow and frozen soil winter is also breeding season beneath a thick blanket of snow they take tunnels and build nests several litters can be born in short succession only stoat pose a threat as lemmings are able to reproduce when they reach the age of just 6 weeks the population can grow very fast its those winter nests that ben was is looking for. Its an indirect method to work out how many lemmings live in the area under investigation. As the snow melts the nests become visible this is the 1st winter nest they found. Climate change means snow now force later in the year and thought. That means that the extended phases of large scale of reproduction known as lemming peaks have ceased. In good years still low would come across 4000 nests here expedition these days 400 are already a lot. Even. The lemmings probably have a whole network under the snow which then connect to the nests or other nests or where they reproduced. His Team Investigates an area of 15 square kilometers every year they cover several 100 kilometers on foot to register the lemming population after just 2 weeks the fuel next to the camp is almost ice free. 3 nests benno us it lurk continues his trek to count nests but he already knows that they are so few in number that the lemming population is unlikely to recover. Sadly theres a clear trend and one that is documented in detail. And. Its july 30th today nests to 2. Its rare for such a Research Project to have 3 decades of data to work with the findings are further evidence for the painful reality of Climate Change. Incidentally what livings are best known for committing mass suicide by jumping off cliffs is a myth it was made popular by the 950. 00 s. Walt disney film white wilderness but the filmmakers actually staged the scene and reportedly pushed the limits of the cliff bin was it and his team are working to expose this popular misconception and restore the rodents reputation. Because of what is read why of it but i feel i do you have a science question that youve always wanted answered were happy to help out send it to us as a video text or voicemail if we answer it on the show well send you a little surprise as a thank you come on just ask. And for most stories about the world of science visit us on our website or on twitter and facebook. Thats all for this week next time on tamara today focused energy how lenses can be placed on solar panels to produce a super concentrated power supply by for now. Im going to. Cause. Dream destination was Majestic Mountain simi. Valley used to sometimes region. You cant speak english elements in bangkok. Scales the feet. Explode the links. And indulges his passion for the angels customs traditions. Coming up on w. Out of the comfort zone. Into the crisis zone theater director milorad doesnt shy away from human suffering he demands an incredible amount from both his actors his holiness the artist activist prices for your milorad on meet the artists march 21. In 30 minutes on d w. Television is for. It. Is for. Beethoven it is for. Beethoven. And beethoven because for. Beethoven is for covering blocks of beethoven 2020. 150th anniversary here on d w. Nor did and what do they dream of at night even. As cleaners they see the face of horror. Their job since ring for the social media industry. In manila there are thousands of socalled content monitors day for day they scream terrifying images from online platforms. Up 220000 times a day. Or is the job for starvation wage. The strain is enormous. The cleaners or sworn to secrecy they are not allowed to talk about their work. And no one asks how they are doing. And when. I need to stop there is something wrong. Do social networks have any social responsibility at all. The cleaners social medias shadow industry starts junaid on t. W. This is news and these are our top stories. Benjamin netanyahu has become the 1st sitting israeli Prime Minister to go on trial if youre going court in jerusalem on sunday to answer to corruption charges this comes just days after he began his 5th term in office. South africas president surreal ramaphosa has warned that the countrys co