About the episode
When you walk through a forest you probably rarely think about how that one tree ended up in that one place. Maybe, when you think about it, it feels like a coincidence. Or something that is controlled by the available space and how the tree itself uses it.
But biologist Ivy Yen of the University of Maine knows better, according to the New York Times. In a gigantic experimental forest, she is researching the link between how the seeds of trees spread and the behavior of the animals that take them with them.
In that forest, the research group of which she is part has already provided 2000 mice and voles with a trackable chip in seven years. These animals were regularly offered trays with the seeds of local trees. A wildlife camera always recorded which animal ran off with which seed. A non-toxic powder on the ground then showed where they had taken the seed and whether it was kept somewhere or had been eaten.
The researchers are now analyzing all that data, of all those seeds, their fate and the behavior of their carriers. They already saw that the character of animals helps determine which seed they take with them and also that the presence of predators influenced how the seeds were handled.
They also saw that there were more brave animals in areas of forest where felling took place and that in a wild forest there is more variation in personalities. The researchers hope to discover much more about how this all contributes to where which tree grows. Because if we want to protect our ecosystems and map out their future, we first need to know how they are formed.
Lees meer: Meet the Mice Who Make the Forest.
