Fish Flingers Make Trees Grow Fast

In Hansen Creek, ecologist Thomas Quinn and students from the University of Washington studied and monitored salmon populations. Whenever they found dead salmon, they would throw the carcasses to the riverbank. However, after doing this for 20 years, Quinn and the students discovered that the forest on the side of their fish carcasses was growing faster than the opposite bank. They measured tree trunk diameters and nitrogen isotopes in white pine needles, and counted tree rings. They discovered that the nitrogen in the needles came from marine sources, proving their theory. If we used fish carcasses as growth enhancers, we could probably decrease the time it takes for some plants to grow.
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Comments

  1. chrheaNovember 14, 2018 at 6:39 AM

    So weird! I wonder if it's possible that there were other factors involved.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 27, 2018 at 4:49 AM

    This could be beneficial if farmers ever have a shortened growing season due to climate change.

    ReplyDelete

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