As Kudzu Moves Across Ohio, Studies Suggest Substantial Loss Of Native Forest In Next Few Decades

[hatrack]

ATHENS, Ohio — Kim Brown doesn't have to travel far across Ohio to hold climate change in her hand. Standing along a road in Athens, she pulls at a leaf from a voracious plant that has swallowed entire forests in the south. "Kudzu is limited by the cold nighttime temperatures," said Brown, a former environmental and plant biologist at Ohio University who now works as education manager at Franklin Park Conservatory.

"Until recently, it couldn't grow in Ohio." But kudzu isn't the end of it. "There will be winners and losers in global warming," she said. Brown and Jyh-Min Chiang, her former doctoral student at OU who now teaches Earth sciences at Tunghai University in Taiwan, are among a number of researchers predicting how forests might look (and act) under different climate-change models.

Chiang looked at sections of forests in southeastern Ohio, northern Arkansas, northern Wisconsin and central Maine for his doctoral dissertation, which he hopes will be published in a research journal this year. Not only will Ohio forests change in terms of species, but rising temperatures probably would reduce their ability to lock and hold carbon.

EDIT

The Ohio atlas suggests a decline in the American beech, and the disappearance of the bigtooth aspen and sugar maple in the next 60 to 100 years. Southern oaks, hickories and pines probably would move in and replace traditional hardwoods. "There will be some change, either an increase or loss of current distribution (of trees) due to increased CO2 emissions," Peters said. "The range or scale is less certain." Brent Sohngen, a professor of environmental economics at Ohio State University, said that in 20 to 30 years, native trees could die in large numbers from the stress of higher temperatures or as invasive species weaken them to the point they can't resist bugs or disease. Within four decades, Longaberger might have to import the sugar maple it uses to make its trademark baskets. And maple-syrup producers from Ohio to New England could be out of the business.

EDIT

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2008/07/08/sci_hot_forest.ART_ART_07-08-08_B4_1HAL6NH.html?sid=101

[yardwork]

1. Disappearance of the Sugar Maple in Ohio?????

Ok, now it's personal.

[Mojorabbit]

2. I think it should be harvested

A flour can be made from it, it could be used to produce ethanol.

[Cleita]

5. Also, isn't it used as a culinary herb?

Maybe there are several commercial uses for it, if only some entrepreneurial types take advantage of the situation. Harvesting it could keep it in check. I wonder why deer and other herbivores don't eat it?

[XemaSab]

3. It's going places

:thumbsup:

[ghostsofgiants]

7. I, for one, am bullish on it.

[eleny]

4. If it could be used for making a biofuel and people could get paid for it....

We would be stripping it from telephone poles and every nook & cranny.

"Put a kudzu in your tank"

[CountAllVotes]

6. kudzu (aka kuzu)

This is a very powerful root. It has many medicinal uses and can also be used in cooking to thicken up sauces, etc. It is healing to the digestive system and basically flavorless. You can grind up the dried root and add it to almost anything. I like using kuzu rather than tapioca or cornstarch when baking pies.

It is too bad that they can only see the ugly side of "kudzu" as they call it.

In fact it is a well-known macrobiotic remedy for just about all that ails a person.

http://askville.amazon.com/kuzu/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=3879946

:dem:

[Buzz Clik]

8. I agree with several of the posters here -- kudzu is a great asset.

It covers all those ugly trees and understory, and gives us the equivalent of a green blanket of snow.

[LaurenG]

9. I think it's time to eat kudzu

that and brew tea out of it or something.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g2603/is_0004/ai_2603000478

[Bake]

10. If they can make ethanol out of kudzu instead of corn

They'd solve TWO problems in one fell swoop! As a Southerner, I can tell you that there is an ENDLESS supply of kudzu!! You can't kill it, so it never runs out!

:woohoo:

Bake

[Zachstar]

11. It ought to not be doing this. I heard a market was found.

Matter of fact I read an article a year ago where whole teams in the south were going out and pulling HUGE amounts of it.

And this was before the fuel crisis.