Eucalyptus generally refers to the general term for more than 700 species of the Myrtaceae family. This entire family has a wide distribution area. We also have several in China, but most of them grow in Australia.
In Australia, the most common type of forest is eucalyptus forest, according to statistics,Eucalyptus trees cover 101 million hectares in their country, accounting for 77% of Australia’s total forest area.
It can be said that the current eucalyptus has an absolute advantage in the Australian plant kingdom, and it does not take a long time for them to do this.
In the fossil record, eucalyptus fossils are basically not found before the Cenozoic and Cenozoic.
As we all know, Australia’s forests are mainly distributed in coastal areas, the inland is relatively dry, and the land desertification is very serious.
However, the earliest eucalyptus was mainly distributed in the inland, but with the climate change, the precipitation gradually decreased, and it was difficult for the trees to survive, and the eucalyptus gradually shifted to the coastal areas.
Some researchers believe that eucalyptus is partly responsible for the desertification of the Australian outback,The reason is that eucalyptus leaves the ecosystem very fragile.
It can be seen from the proportion of eucalyptus trees in the coastal areas of Australia that eucalyptus trees are very easy to gain an advantage in competition and suppress the growth of other species, causing other species to go extinct.
The resilience of the ecosystem has a lot to do with the diversity of species. When most of the trees in a forest are eucalyptus, it becomes very vulnerable, so when the climate in inland areas changes to the point where it is not suitable for eucalyptus growth, the land Immediately there was severe desertification.
Why is eucalyptus an advantage? Eucalyptus can appear in large areas in Australia, in fact, because this tree is really too powerful in evolution.
First, they are very resistant to pests. Not only are their leaves poisonous, but the extracts of the leaves can also act as a repellent material.
There are not many animals that can eat eucalyptus leaves in Australia, and koalas are a kind of. Their special digestion and detoxification capabilities allow them to have the ability to eat eucalyptus leaves, which allows this cute and weak animal to live in the wild. survive.
Second, the eucalyptus tree has a clear-cut trick – creating fires.There are very serious forest fires in Australia every year, in fact, the culprit is eucalyptus.
We said earlier that the forests of Australia are basically eucalyptus trees, which are easy to be set on fire under normal conditions, and they burn taller trees to death through fires.
Of course they burn themselves to death, but their seeds hold up well in fires, and then they grow very fast, quickly shading the sun and suppressing the growth of trees that may grow taller than them. growing up.
Growing fast requires more water and soil nutrients, and there are many plants that can grow on the bottom of the forest, and they will snatch soil nutrients.
In order to compete for soil nutrients, eucalyptus has another trick,Allelopathy.
Eucalyptus trees are sometimes grown as ornamental plants, but the downside of growing them is that their bark falls off as soon as they fall off, which can damage a car if you’re not careful.
In fact, there is a reason why they shed their bark so easily, because when the bark falls on the ground, it secretes special chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants, a process called allelopathy.
The fallen leaves of eucalyptus also have this function, so the place where eucalyptus is planted often does not see other plants.
All of these abilities make eucalyptus flourish in Australia.
Although China also has native eucalyptus, the eucalyptus known as “desperate tree” is imported from Australia, and generally refers to fast-growing eucalyptus, some species that grow very fast.
Why does growing fast-growing eucalyptus damage the environment? Eucalyptus fast-growing is actually a hybrid variety – crossed to obtain the characteristics we most need, such as cold and disease resistance and fast growth, in short, it becomes very suitable as a cash crop.
There are also many types of fast-growing eucalyptus, some of which grow as fast as those of bamboo, and can grow 10 meters a year.
But, like we said before, fast growth is not good for the land and the native plants on the land, because they grow faster, which means more resources are needed.
The fast-growing eucalyptus has the title of “pumping machine”, and the first condition for planting is that the annual precipitation exceeds 1000 mm.
If this precipitation condition is not met,Then the first damage of planting this eucalyptus will be very obvious – groundwater stops flowing, reservoirs dry up.
Of course, the roots of eucalyptus extend up to 6 meters, and in some areas, it is difficult to affect the groundwater level, but those plants that also need water can be very suppressed by them.
In addition to high water consumption, their growth also requires soil nutrients. We normally supplement the soil with nitrogen and phosphorus, but fast-growing eucalyptus will consume other nutrients.
After the trees are cut down, these nutrients are turned into processed tree products and taken to other areas, leaving a barren land where many native plants cannot grow.
The ecosystem has its own healing ability, but the rapid consumption of land resources like fast-growing eucalyptus will make it difficult for the system itself to make up for it in a short period of time.
In addition, and most importantly, the planting of eucalyptus will lead to the reduction of other crops, because of their allelopathy.
Finally, we often say that humans are very destructive to the environment, but in fact any species with absolute dominance will cause damage to the environment.
As a cash crop, fast-growing eucalyptus has been transformed to be much stronger than ordinary eucalyptus, which can have an impact on Australia’s ecology, not to mention the “artificial variety” of fast-growing eucalyptus.
But even so, it is a bit exaggerated to call eucalyptus a “desperate tree”. After all, the destructive power of eucalyptus is still within the controllable range of our ability.
In fact, as long as the planting area is planted according to the requirements, it will be fine, and the economic benefits it brings will outweigh the destructive power it brings.
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