[MUD-Dev] Java, applets, forests and ecologies.

[Ola Fosheim Grøstad <olag@ifi.uio.no>]

Derrick Jones <gunther at online1.magnus1.com> wrote:
>
>
>On Sat, 29 Nov 1997, Ling wrote:
>> Okay, today's stupid question:  Forests!  How do they start?  I mean,
>> seriously!  I've always lived in rurban areas, and the forests near me
>> seem to have been pruned a bit.  Do forests really start off with a wall
>> of trees?  Does nature define a sharp boundary in Her mysterious ways?
>
>Forests start off (cronologically) with a grassy field.  Then shrubs and
>larger plants move in once the grass makes the soil fertile enough.  As
>they, in turn, deepen the fertile soil, small trees take root, then the
>larger trees.  Eventually the forest (barring man's encroachment or
>natural disasters) will cover everywhere the soil can support it.

Are you sure about this?? Actually, pine (or was it fir?) can grow in
stone and rubble.  That is in the nature of trees, some of them have
roots that go deep.  Different type of trees have different nurturing,
reproduction and spreading strategies. Cloning and seeds,
transportation by animals, wind, water and even by exploding seed
housings (can't find the proper word).

Whether the seeds will be successful is dependant on a lot of stuff,
one of the essential parameters is access to light. A young tree
competes with weeds and other trees.  What keeps a park from becoming
a forest? Someone cuts the lawn, and alas, the tree as well. Same
thing happens in nature, goats are particularly nasty.

Anyways, I believe most of our forests have started with a giant
fire. :) Some biology purists even set sections of forests on fire to
have a natural cycle, (and to save those trees that depend on fire for
the nuts to start growing (a very cunning plan, indeed))

Up here in Norway I guess one would have a cycle of birch would come
straight after the fire followed by spruce and pine, leveling off with
some kind of mixture. I don't know.  Nature is surprisingly dynamic.
Lots of changes over time.  Our very adaptive perception doesn't
recognize this though.  For instance, I can't tell whether my garden
has changed or not over the past 10 years, although I know it has.

Ola.