{"id":1493,"date":"2017-12-08T00:22:59","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T00:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/?p=1493"},"modified":"2018-11-09T10:25:32","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T10:25:32","slug":"one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/one\/","title":{"rendered":"Being one with the trees"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On 20th December 2017 the BBC will <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/mediacentre\/proginfo\/2017\/51\/judi-dench-trees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">broadcast a program about Judi Dench<\/a> and her love for trees (edit 9\/11\/2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/programmes\/b09jxnv4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">not currently on iplayer, but you can see clips<\/a>).\u00a0 The press release says &#8220;<em>With the latest scientific techniques and equipment at her disposal, she is able to truly understand how trees work, and gain an insight into their secrets.\u00a0Judi learns just how effective trees are as carbon capture machines that are fighting to protect our planet.<\/em>&#8221;\u00a0 Like many people, Judi planted trees in memory of family and friends who have passed away. These days we also see woodland burials &#8211; and some claims of <a href=\"http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2017\/05\/03\/world\/eco-solutions-capsula-mundi\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> funeral methods that will turn you into a tree<\/a> (some more dubious than others).<\/p>\n<p>Well, we think that planting a tree is great &#8211; and that maybe we should plant more trees that we can enjoy while we are alive too.\u00a0 \u00a0<strong>We also have a cunning wheeze on how to become part of the forest without having to push up the daisies<\/strong>.\u00a0 Here is how:<\/p>\n<p>Trees make wood &#8211; that wood is built from carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms via photosynthesis. The carbon and the oxygen atoms come from the air &#8211; specifically the carbon dioxide: CO<sub>2<\/sub>.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/schools\/gcsebitesize\/science\/add_ocr_gateway\/green_world\/photosynthesisrev5.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">During photosynthesis, all of the\u00a0carbon atoms of that CO<sub>2\u00a0<\/sub>are used to make the sugar to build wood, along with half of the oxygen atoms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Approximately half of the dry mass of wood is the carbon atoms, and about 40% is oxygen atoms &#8211; and once the wood is made, those atoms are stuck there in the wood for as long as it exists &#8211; which could be a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/List_of_oldest_trees\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">considerable length of time<\/a>, even without considering that the wood could end up in something else with a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shigir_Idol\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">long life of its own<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide &#8211; the carbon (and a few of the oxygen atoms) in that carbon dioxide come from us.\u00a0 Literally.\u00a0 Have you ever wondered what happens when you lose weight?\u00a0 Where does it go?\u00a0 The surprising answer is that you breathe most of it out. If you had imagined it gets turned into energy (or you poop it out) then you would be wrong &#8211; in the same way as many doctors, dieticians and personal trainers &#8230;as<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/349\/bmj.g7257\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> this paper in the December 2014 issue of the BMJ points out<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>So &#8211; if you visit a forest and do some exercise to lose weight (<a href=\"http:\/\/scotland.forestry.gov.uk\/activities\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a nice walk, jog, cycle ride, or rope swing from tree to tree<\/a>) some of the weight you lose will end up in the forest.\u00a0 What was part of you will end up as part of trees.<\/p>\n<p>That sounds fun&#8230;but we cannot have fun without maths:<\/p>\n<p>That <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/content\/349\/bmj.g7257\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paper in the BMJ <\/a>gives us some figures about the carbon we breathe out: &#8220;<em>When somebody loses 10 kg of fat (triglyceride), 8.4 kg is exhaled as CO<sub>2<\/sub><\/em>. <em>The remainder of the 28 kg total of CO<sub>2<\/sub> produced is contributed by inhaled oxygen&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>If you breathe that CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0out while in a forest &#8211; while the trees are photosynthesising &#8211; well that CO<sub>2<\/sub>\u00a0might end up\u00a0as wood in the trees.<\/p>\n<p>If you manage to lose 1 kg during your trips to the forest, then potentially 840 grams of that is in your CO<sub>2<\/sub><em>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a0<\/em>now available for making wood.\u00a0 Losing 1 kg means breathing out 2.8 kg of CO<sub>2<\/sub> in total &#8211; the 840 grams of that which comes from your body is almost all the mass of carbon atoms.<\/p>\n<p>Because the vast majority (~90%) of that mass you lose though breathing out is carbon atoms in CO<sub>2\u00a0<\/sub>\u00a0<strong>potentially three quarters of the weight you lose can end up in the trees!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We can work out the volume of wood using basic density &#8211; which is dry mass divided by volume when green.\u00a0 It&#8217;s about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forestry.gov.uk\/pdf\/FCRP015.pdf\/%24file\/FCRP015.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">350 kg\/m<sup>3<\/sup>\u00a0for the spruce<\/a> growing in our forests &#8211; and up to about twice that for the hardwoods.\u00a0 So your 0.75 kilo contribution to the forest represents a cube of wood with sides of about 10 cm.\u00a0 Not bad!<\/p>\n<p>So if you want to become part of the forest &#8211;\u00a0go into the forest and enjoy it.<\/p>\n<p>With thanks to BMJ 2014;349:g7257 for the harder calculations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>On 20th December 2017 the BBC will broadcast a program about Judi Dench and her love for trees (edit 9\/11\/2019, not currently on iplayer, but <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.napier.ac.uk\/cwst\/one\/\" title=\"Being one with the trees\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[43],"class_list":["post-1493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-public-engagement"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Being one with the trees - Centre for Wood Science &amp; 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