How does a massive tree grow from a tiny seed if the tree is only absorbing nutrients from the soil and sunlight? Has a 20 foot oak tree removed its equivalent mass in nutrient matter from the world around it and replaced it with its own mass?
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>Has a 20 foot oak tree removed its equivalent mass in nutrient matter from the world around it and replaced it with its own mass?
Yes. This is how all organisms grow. We take in matter and turn it into parts of ourselves. Most of the dry mass of trees is carbon, which they get from absorbing carbon dioxide from the air.
The oldest oak trees is estimated to be around 1,000 years old. If you think about how much we grow in our first 18 years of life just from food which is sunlight and soil to plants and extend that to a plant that has a much bigger life span a larger ability to grow the short answer is time it takes a very very long time also the bigger the tree the more leaves pulling in sunlight and the more roots pulling in food it’s ability to collect grows as it grows.
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Most of the mass gained by a tree is carbon taken in from the air.
The roots send water up to the leaves. The water evaporates under the leaf. This causes a vacuum and draws in air. The plants draws out carbon, letting back out Oxygen.
So, loads of CO2 in, loads of O2 out. A bit of water cycled in the process. And some photosynthesis and some nutrients from the soil to fuel the process.
99%(rough figure) of the tree mass is taken from the air. If you burn the tree you are left with few kg of ash. That few kg of ash is the actual part taken from the soil, aka minerals. That’s why ash is a great fertilizer. The rest is carbon captured from air, mixed with oxygen and hydrogen to make molecules that form the tree.
Note: this are very approximated numbers.
trees are mostly made from carbon they take out of the air. (which is why ppl always talk about trees when talking about global warming) there have been expairments where they plant trees in contained dirt vessels. after years the remove the tree and weigh the dirt and it’s almost exactly the same weight as before.
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