Plants, snow and ice

1
Plants, snow and ice
2
Plants, snow and ice

• Under the snow
• is warm and steady
• energy is consumed but it cannot be made
• theres no wind ? plants wont dry
• its moist ? plants get water easily
• winter fungi and other pests may spread
• freezing doesnt damage roots

3
Plants, snow and ice

• Plants are partly protected from animals
• in places where snow stays longer, growing in
  spring starts later
• trees and bushes suffer from snow burden
• seeds cannot spread under the snow
• if snow bends lower branches of a tree, they can
  grow roots and reproduce

4
SNOW DAMAGES

• Mostly mechanical
• Injuries
• crown loss
• stem and branches breaking and bending
• Younger/smaller trees vs. older/larger trees
• severer damages in older/larger trees
• ? due to rapid recovery of young/small ones.
• Conifers vs. broadleaves
• severer damages in conifers
• ? due to evergreen and dense foliage
• Adaptations of conifers to mechanical
  damages

5
Adaptations of conifers to mechanical damages

• Main stem
• Coin shape
• More obtuse angles between branches and the main
  stem

6
ICE DAMAGES

• Several times of the year
• Different killing temperatures
• 2 types of freezing
• intracellular
• extracellular
• Injuries
• blackened sapwood - bark cracking/splitting
• injuried cambium - frozen roots
• tissues turn dark - death of leaves and
  buds
• Frost effect is mostly negative