Wildfires and Photosynthesis

As a gardener and a person living in an area that has been known to experience smoke from distant wildfires, I am concerned about how this affects plants, trees and other living things.

If it is not good for me and my lungs, how do the lungs of the planet (trees) react when this thick, smoky air circulates around them. Unlike me, they cannot close the windows and doors and hope for the best.

So I was surprised when a study came out in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in the fall of 2020 which started out as something else and ended up with findings that indicate the trees were not giving off Carbon Dioxide or taking in Oxygen. The story led me to further investigate.

Effectively, the trees were not exhaling or inhaling anything so photosynthesis was not happening. With the smoke swirling around them, this seemed to indicate that either the leaves were clogged by carbon particles or the tree deliberately closed itself off for protection.

The scientists could not definitively explain why this happens or what long range exposure would do if this was necessary. No doubt this will take further study but it does make you wonder.

In the past we have learned that nature does find a way to heal, one way or another. When you look at burned out sites, you see that when life returns and so does wildlife as a result.

I believe that since soil also plays a big part of regeneration, plants and other growing things will find a pay to thrive. But it begs the question, what else is nature hiding that we do not know in order for it to survive.