GCE Announcement
Field Program News
Life will find a way
Life will find a way. Here, a seedling of a terrestrial tree is growing out the top of a pvc pole in the middle of the marsh at the PREDEX experiment. Most likely it arrived here in a bird dropping, because birds are always happy to find something to sit on out in the middle of a grassy field. Will it continue to grow? The inside of pipes like this can fill up with rain water (one reason they are often colonized by frogs) so salinity stress may not be a problem for a long time. But maybe drought (if not enough rain) or nutrients (if not enough debris in the pipe) will end up killing the little fellow. Stay tuned! If it survives another year, no doubt we'll report on it next summer.
A terrestrial seedling growing out of a pvc pipe in the middle of the marsh
(Contact Steve Pennings for additional information)
submitted Jul 16, 2025
