© Michele HoganPlants have long been known as the lungs of the earth, but a new finding has found they may also play a role in electrifying the atmosphere.
Plants have long been known as the lungs of the Earth, but a new finding has found they may also play a role in electrifying the atmosphere.
Scientists have long-suspected an association between trees and electricity but researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) think they may have finally discovered the link.
Dr Rohan Jayaratne and Dr Xuan Ling from QUT's International Laboratory for Air Quality and Health (ILAQH), led by Professor Lidia Morawska, ran experiments in six locations around Brisbane, including the Brisbane Forest Park, Daisy Hill and Mt Coot-tha.
They found the positive and negative ion concentrations in the air were twice as high in heavily wooded areas than in open grassy areas, such as parks.
Dr Jayaratne, who is also a member of QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), said that natural ions in the air were mainly created by ionisation due to two processes -- radiation from the trace gas radon in air and cosmic radiation from space.
Radon is a by-product of the radioactive decay of radium which is present in minute quantities in rocks and is continually exhaled by the ground.
"Because radium is found in rocks and radon is soluble in water, ground water is particularly rich in radon," he said.
"Trees act as radon pumps, bringing the gas to the surface and releasing it to the atmosphere through transpiration -- a process where water absorbed by the root system is evaporated into the atmosphere from leaves. This is especially prevalent for trees with deep root systems, such as eucalypts."
The QUT scientists estimated that, in a eucalyptus forest, trees may account for up to 37 per cent of the radon in the air when transpiration rates were highest.
Dr Jayaratne said though there was still a lot more research which needed to be done in relation to the role of ions, the findings, which were published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, have potentially important implications for the atmosphere, climate and human health.
"Although there is an established link between airborne particles and human health, the role of ions is largely unknown," he said.
"However, we do know that approximately one-half of the particles that we inhale during normal breathing are retained in our respiratory system and it has been shown that charged particles were more likely to be deposited in the lungs than uncharged particles.
"We do not believe that ions are dangerous -- the danger comes from the pollutants. If there are no dangerous particles in the air to attach to the ions there is no risk of ill health."
I live in a Juniper and Pinion forest and the trees have taught me many things. There is magic in trees. They are portals into the realm of nature spirits and the underworld, etc. The ancient Druids and Pagans knew this and were famous for their groves which were used for divination and contact with other realities. Like magicians or shamans use fire or a smudge to put particulate into the air to give the spirits something with which to manifest themselves, trees can serve the same purpose. I have seen the Green Man and countless other spirits over the years and even some very dark entities that obviously came up from the underworld to test me, to see if they could scare me off. I managed to brass it out and now I know and am known by the trees.
A cryptic passage from the Bible talks about the battle of Ephraim wood. It lay on the east of Jordan, not far from Mahanaim, and was some part of the great forest of Gilead. The story can be found in 2 Samuel the 18th chapter.
The scene is King David is ousted in a family coup and flees with just a few thousand men, is attacked by a massive army and it doesn't look good, then the spirits intervene...
6 So the people went out into the field against Israel: and the battle was in the wood of Ephraim;
7 Where the people of Israel were slain before the servants of David, and there was there a great slaughter that day of twenty thousand men.
8 For the battle was there scattered over the face of all the country: and the wood devoured more people that day than the sword devoured.
Never give up, never surrender. Hold fast to what is right and true. Pray for protection and blessing in the struggle and look for a miracle.