Good news! Amazing stuff! Even uprooted trees are capable of adaptation! 😊
Shall we call the UK Giant sequoias country now? 😊
"The trees, which were first brought to the UK about 160 years ago, are growing at a similar rate to those found in their native range in California.
The scientists believe the UK trees are also outnumbering the ones in the mountains of Sierra Nevada.
However, they aren't yet as tall. In California the biggest reach 90m high, but in the UK the tallest is [55m]. ...
By comparison there are [only] about 80,000 mature giant redwoods in their native range in the forests of California. ...
Giant redwoods can live for more than 2,000 years, so there's still plenty of time for the UK's trees to catch up.
It's estimated there are half a million redwoods in the UK - this includes the giant redwoods studied (Sequoiadendron giganteum - also commonly called giant sequoias) as well as coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods, both of which were introduced at later dates. But the scientists in the study say they think most of the UK trees are giant redwoods.
Giant redwoods were first brought to the UK by the Victorians. They were the ultimate botanical status symbol, typically planted in the grand estates of the wealthy. ..."
From the abstract:
"Giant sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum) are some of the UK’s largest trees, despite only being introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. There are an estimated half a million giant sequoias and closely related coastal redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) in the UK. Given the recent interest in planting more trees, partly due to their carbon sequestration potential and also their undoubted public appeal, an understanding of their growth capability is important. However, little is known about their growth and carbon uptake under UK conditions. Here, we focus on S. giganteum and use three-dimensional terrestrial laser scanning to perform detailed structural measurements of 97 individuals at three sites covering a range of different conditions, to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB) and annual biomass accumulation rates. We show that UK-grown S. giganteum can sequester carbon at a rate of 85 kg yr−1, varying with climate, management and age. We develop new UK-specific allometric models for S. giganteum that fit the observed AGB with r 2 > 0.93 and bias < 2% and can be used to estimate S. giganteum biomass more generally. This study provides the first estimate of the growth and carbon sequestration of UK open-grown S. giganteum and provides a baseline for estimating their longer-term carbon sequestration capacity."
Giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) in the UK: carbon storage potential and growth rates (open access)
Figure 1. Locations of 4949 S. giganteum in the UK
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