Flora of Mount Royal - Journal Entry (Rylan Donohoe)

  1. Phylogeny placement: Betula papyrifera (also known as paper birch, white birch, or canoe birch) is a species of birch that is native to North America. It belongs to the kingdom Plantae, order Fagales, family Betulaceae, genus Betula, and subgenus Betula subg. Betula.
  2. Shared adaptation: Betula papyrifera, along with all other organisms on Mount Royal in Montreal, have adapted to the cold climate of northern North America. All these organisms have unique ways in which they have adapted to withstand temperatures in the negatives. If you were to suddenly move these organisms to an extremely hot climate—like by the equator—it is unlikely that they would survive.
  3. Unique adaptation: Temperature fluctuations in cambium (i.e., the cells right under the bark of woody plants) caused by heating during the day and cooling during the night damages trees (Karels & Boonstra, 2003). The white bark of Betula papyrifera is a unique adaptation of this species of birch that allows it to avoid rapid heating during the day, thereby maximizing its survival rate in frigid climates like Montreal (Karels & Boonstra, 2003).

Reference:
Karels, T. & Boonstra R. (2003). Reducing Solar Heat Gain during Winter: The Role of White Bark in Northern Deciduous Trees. Arctic Institute of North America, 56(2), 168–174. http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic612

Note: I was unable to italicize the genus/species names nor the journal/volume reference on iNaturalist.

Publicado el septiembre 22, 2021 06:11 TARDE por rylandonohoe rylandonohoe

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