While we live with trees, they are blessed to outlive us sometimes. Large and magnificent trees are the symbolic representation of great age among all living organisms. The longevity of trees varies for different plant species. Some survive for five years, while others like Juniperus and Pines can naturally live up to 2000 years. Trees, like any other living organisms, depend on numerous minerals from sunlight, water and soil to survive. Plants, in general, need 16 essential nutrients from their environment to grow, which if not provided in a balanced amount will affect their growth preventing them from completing their life cycle. It has been scientifically proven that trees are vulnerable to losing their life span to an unsteady environment. The ongoing and future global changes like temperature instability are threatening dramatic shifts in growing periods of plants causing them to lose considerable years of their natural lifetime. Today, climate change is making some plants go extinct 500 times faster than they’re supposed to, while negatively altering the leaf, root, and reproductive development of plants. According to a study by European Commission for Science for Environmental Policy suggests climate change has appeared to shift plant cycles over the past six decades. The factor that has affected plant longevity the most was caused by temperature, followed by rainfall irregularity. Climate changing phenomena like rising CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere, elevating the global temperature, and drought situations put stress on the developmental processes in leaves, roots, and reproductive structures. Due to the stress root elongation process and movement of root growth angle are both reduced to large unhealthy extent. And in response to drought, seed yielding has also plummeted along with an increase in root biomass in shallow soil due to elevated CO2. These variable responses to extreme climatic conditions from plants arrest the development of their reproductive structures and reduce growth rate. Due to high-temperature plants are growing taller than their normal height and moving away from other plants to cool themselves, which is making them unsupported and precarious, causing them to bend more and break in an untimely manner. Environments responsible for slow plant growth are also home to several plant enemies that attack or kill more trees degrading the longevity of trees. The reproductive rate of aphids and related insect types, who are dangerous parasites to plants, have increased due to higher temperatures in the forest. And the drought stress on the host trees like oaks, lindens, maple, etc. shrinks the defense capacity in these plants, increasing their susceptibility to an aphid attack. Many shreds of evidence have indicated that trees do not die because of genetically programmed senescence in their meristems, the indistinct tissue in plants from which new cells are formed, but many external biotic or abiotic agent are responsible for their early deaths. Trees in order to achieve their highest longevity needs suitable conditions that allow them to retain their capacity to push their growth. But the climate change is consistently disturbing the adequate environmental ecosystem around plants all across the globe, breaking their natural life expectancy.
10 Jan 2022
Purnima Priyadarshini
