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A recently documented bald cypress stand in North Carolina, including a tree at least 2,624 years old, is the oldest known living tree in eastern North America and the most ancient species of wetland tree known in the world.
David Stahle, Emeritus Professor of Geoscience, as well as colleagues from the former University Consortium, Bald Cypress Consortium and other conservation groups, discovered the trees in 2017 in a woodland wetland preserved along the Black River, south of Raleigh, North Carolina. Stahle has documented the age of trees using dendrochronology, ring studies and radio carbon dating. His findings were published on May 9 in the journal Communications on Environmental Research.
The old trees are part of an intact ecosystem that covers most of the 65 miles of the Black River. In addition to their age, trees are a scientifically valuable means of restoring ancient climatic conditions. The oldest trees on the reserve extend 900-year-old paleoclimate records in the southeastern United States and reflect pre-colonial and pre-colonial droughts and floods that exceed all measured in the modern era.
"It's extremely unusual to see an old stand of trees running the length of a river like this," Stahle said. "Bald cypresses are valuable for wood and have been heavily exploited.Much less than 1% of virgin virgin cypress forests have survived."
Stahle has been working in the area since 1985 and has listed 1,700-year-old bald cypresses in a 1988 study published in the journal Science. His work has preserved the area, of which 16,000 acres have since been purchased by The Nature Conservancy, a private land conservation group that maintains most of its properties open to the public.
"Mr. Stahle's original work on the Black River, showing trees from the Roman era, prompted us to begin black preservation more than twenty years ago," said Katherine Skinner, Director Executive of the North Carolina Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. "This ancient forest gives us an idea of what a great part of the North Carolina coastal plain looked like thousands of years ago, it's a source of inspiration and an important ecosystem. Dr. Stahle, she would have remained unprotected and probably destroyed. "
For the latest study, the researchers used non-destructive core samples of 110 trees found in a part of the rainforest that they had never visited before. "The area of old bald cypress trees was 10 times larger than what I realized," Stahle said. "We think there are still older trees."
Source of the story:
Material provided by University of Arkansas. Original written by Bob Whitby. Note: Content can be changed for style and length.
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