Earths most massive living thing is struggling to survive

Christopher Booker:

In October, Rogers and co-author Darren McAvoy published a study documenting Pando's dramatic change. Using over 70 years of aerial photographs as a guide, Rogers' and his team sampled and studied 3 different plots within Pando to try to understand what may be happening. They found that Pando is suffering a complex ecological breakdown- a disruption that is hindering the way the giant Aspen clone replaces the dying portions of itself.

A Quaking Aspen clone like Pando grows not from a seed, but from small saplings that sprout from the expanding root structure. The saplings growing into the white trunks that can stand for well over 100 years. And as older ones die, they are replaced by new green saplings.

But there's a problem. The saplings have long served as snacks for the wide array of herbivores, animals that scientists call browsers, that regularly pass through aspen forests of the Northern Hemisphere.

For the majority of Pando's existence, these browsers- everything from rabbit, to deer, to elk- were not able to linger very long. Predators kept them spending too much time inside the giant aspen clone.

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