Wildfire Smoke Signals Some Trees to Hold Their Breath

Researchers document a unique reaction from pines when smoke fills the air
By Gina Carey,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 11, 2024 9:00 AM CDT
Trees May Hold Their Breath During Wildfires
Ponderosa Pines charred by the Bighorn Fire stand along the Palisade Trail in the Santa Catalina Ranger District of Arizona's Coronado National Forest in 2020.   (Josh Galemore/Arizona Daily Star via AP, Pool)

During wildfires, people are urged to stay inside with shut windows to avoid inhaling smoke. Surrounding trees don't have that option, of course, but a new study suggests that some species can protect themselves from dangerous air quality, too. Yale Environment 360 reports that a team of researchers out of Colorado State University came upon this information serendipitously while in the field for another project. As smoke from a nearby fire filled the air, they took the opportunity to observe how it affected the ponderosa pines they were studying. They learned that the trees' stomata, small pores on the surfaces of leaves that take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, closed in the smoky conditions.

"What our months of data told us is that some plants respond to heavy bouts of wildfire smoke by shutting down their exchange with outside air," the study's authors write in the Conversation. "They are effectively holding their breath, but not before they have been exposed to the smoke." Studies on how wildfires affect plants and wildlife are harder to come by because they're hard to predict and dangerous to interact with, so researchers aren't typically on hand to record data. While more information is needed to understand these new findings, the authors suspect that the leaves are actively closing the stomata or that the smoke is clogging them—or some combination of both. (More wildfire stories.)

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