The earth is a beautiful world of life. The reason why life can be born and continued on the earth is mainly because the earth has a very perfect ecosystem. In this ecosystem, plants occupy a very important position. Plants absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis and release oxygen at the same time. Most living things on the earth need oxygen to survive.
At the same time, plants are also important natural purifiers, which can continuously absorb and purify toxic gases and dust in the air, so that living things have a good ecological environment. In the plant ecosystem, the forest formed by tall trees is an important part. Only with the existence of forests can a large number of herbivorous animals be born and multiplied.
Herbivores are food for carnivores, and their prosperity directly determines the stability of the entire earth’s biological system. Therefore, the forest area is an important indicator of whether the earth’s ecosystem is good and stable. For the ecosystem, the more forest area is naturally the better.
But everything has two sides. The more forest area, the better for the stability of the ecosystem, and the more conducive to the survival and reproduction of animals. However, trees are also the places most prone to fires. Once a forest fires, it will also have a serious impact on the surrounding ecological environment. If it is a particularly huge forest fire, it will also affect the global ecological environment.
With the rapid development of human industry, more and more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases are emitted into the atmosphere, which has led to the continuous intensification of the greenhouse effect and the rising global temperature. The earth’s temperature keeps rising, and the probability of forest fires becoming more frequent and higher. There are many forest fires all over the world every year, and the most impressive one should be the Australian forest fire in September last year.
We all know that Australia’s virgin forests are world-famous and their area is also very large. Moreover, Australia is still a very hot and dry place, where forest fires are extremely prone to occur. In September 2019, the virgin forest here caught fire again. What many people did not expect was that the fire would be so serious this time.
It started to burn for more than 5 months from September 2019 and was not basically extinguished until February this year. Such a long forest fire naturally caused very serious losses, and thousands of residents were forced to flee their homes. 1.8 million hectares have been burnt in Australia’s forest fires. In addition, more than 1,400 kilometers of coastline are burning, quite from the northeast to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.
According to statistics from the World Wildlife Fund, approximately 1.25 billion wild animals died directly or indirectly in this forest fire. The consequences of the fire are very serious, not only affecting the ecological environment of Australia, but also affecting the entire ecological environment of the earth.
After five months of hard work, the fire that shocked the world was finally extinguished. Nine months have passed now, and the desolate virgin forest after the initial fire is now beginning to glow green. The resuscitation capacity of plants is far beyond our imagination. Wildfires are endless, and spring breeze blows back again. This is a true portrayal of the tenacious biological power of plants.
Now in Australia’s virgin forests, what we see are trees that are constantly resurrecting, and the greens are getting more and more. But when scientists saw this green color, they couldn’t be happy. Why? The reason is that the eucalyptus that is the first to recover at present allows us to see the beginning of the next tragedy.
Eucalyptus is known as Australia’s “national tree”. Among the forests that account for 20% of Australia’s land area, the planting area of eucalyptus accounts for about 80% of the total forest area. Since eucalyptus bark is rich in eucalyptus oil, they fall off and accumulate in the roots of the tree. When the temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius, it will spontaneously ignite, which can easily cause forest fires. The main culprit of the Australian fire is eucalyptus.
We often say that fire and water are ruthless, especially fire. Plants are the most feared. Basically no plant likes fire. But eucalyptus is different. It likes fire very much. Why? Eucalyptus is a special tree. After thousands of years of evolution, it has evolved its ability to not be afraid of fire.
Eucalyptus trees generally have straight and tall trunks, with branches only growing at the tip of the tree. When a mountain fire occurs, the branches and leaves of other plants will be severely toasted by the fire, and the tall crown of the eucalyptus tree can prevent the flames from climbing up to a certain extent. climb. In addition, eucalyptus has very thick bark, which can withstand the baking of fire.
Eucalyptus has a very strong need for fire. The reason is that its seeds are wrapped in a very thick shell. This shell needs the help of fire to break, and then take root and sprout. From the perspective of life reproduction, it is easy to understand that eucalyptus likes fire very much.
For eucalyptus to make its family prosperous, it must rely on the power of fire. In order to be favored by fire, eucalyptus has evolved to be very flammable. Its leaves are rich in oily plants. And the higher the temperature of the environment, the more oily plants are secreted, which makes it easier to catch fire.
The eucalyptus is very unwelcome to human beings. In many parts of our country, people call eucalyptus a wicked tree. It is not afraid of fire, but actively ignites it. After the fire, all other plants and trees were burned out. However, because the bark of eucalyptus is so thick and the internal nutrient pipeline is not damaged, it can quickly recover after the fire.
Therefore, after the Australian forest fires, eucalyptus was the first to recover in large numbers, and its seed shells were also broken by the fire, which is more conducive to the germination of new eucalyptus. But because eucalyptus trees are particularly tall, when they recover and grow, the growth of other trees and plants will be greatly affected.
Therefore, every time there is a fire in the Australian forest, the proportion of eucalyptus will increase by one point, and now it occupies 80% of the forest area, this time after the fire. After the forest recovers again, the area of eucalyptus trees may exceed 80%. The more eucalyptus, the greater the possibility of another fire. This is a vicious circle.
Although we all know that a large number of eucalyptus trees can easily cause forest fires, we have no way to change this. Some people may say that we will cut down all the eucalyptus trees in the Australian forests, and plant other trees.
This method looks good, but it is very difficult to implement. You must know that the Amazon Rainforest is a primitive forest that has existed for thousands of years, and its area is very vast. If we want to remove the eucalyptus, let alone how much manpower and material resources need to be paid, this kind of man-made destruction and removal will invisibly destroy the entire forest system.
Once the primary forest system in Australia has problems, the ecological impact on the entire planet will be very large. It may cause a series of uncontrollable factors to appear. Therefore, we have no way to remove and replace the eucalyptus in the forest, we can only do fire prevention measures. What is more important is to strengthen the scale and capabilities of firefighting.
Australia has a vast area of forest and is prone to fires, but its firefighting capabilities are very weak. There are fewer than 3,000 professional firefighters in the country. Forest fires mainly rely on volunteers. This number of rescuers was nothing but a drop in the bucket for such a raging fire, so the fire burned for 5 months before it was extinguished.
As global warming continues to intensify, we can foresee that forest fires like last year will continue to occur in the future. The stability of the earth’s ecology and the ecology of mankind are inseparable from these forests. We can only increase the area of forests, not reduce them. But as the forest area increases, the probability of fires will increase. We must not only strengthen the fire-fighting and rescue capabilities, but also develop more powerful fire-fighting equipment.
Technology can create infinite possibilities, and we can also apply technology to make fires no longer a threat. As long as more powerful fire-fighting equipment and technology are available, forest fires like Australia can be extinguished very quickly, thereby greatly reducing losses. Protecting the forests also protects the ecology of the earth and protects the homeland for human survival.