Whirinaki Forest

Ngati Whare shares Whirinaki, one
of the world's most precious rainforests
at Te Whaiti, Te Urewera, Aotearoa, NZ

Valuing our rainforests for the ecosystem services they provide for Life

Explore our place: our community initiatives and patron David Bellamy's Our World video from 1984 - Whirinaki Forest; The World's Best Kept Secret
Get access to our School's on-line weather station data here (includes 2010 catchment records) and technical details of how we built it
Watch Our winning You Tube Video entry for the Brightsparks Electronic Technology Awards 2011 - both our classes got 3rd place in their age group

NEWS SCOOP 2nd Dec 2011: In the eye of the Storm - Columbia and Climate Change - The latest research report on the value of Rainforests
LATEST TED TALK Dec 2011: Pavan_Sukhdev - What's the Price of Nature - An overview of of Ecosystem Services Value including RainForests

Getting things in context:

Over millions of years our rainforests evolved to play an important part in regulating our world's temperatures and climate, finally establishing an ecosystem in which we (amongst the world's youngest species) could emerge and survive. As we destroy our rainforests, pollute our environment and pretend we can take charge of creation, we place our human future at risk.

Our planet is a complex system (which to us humans may look chaotic) where everything is inter-dependent and interacts with everything else, including our solar system, the galaxies and all the phenomena it is part of.

That is what our ancestors teach us about whakapapa (our connections with everything else and our respect for older species). The tell us that the Tane, God of the forest who separated the earth mother Papatuanuku and Sky father Ranginui is the source of all life (see origins research story).

Their wisdom is supported by a interview on The mystery of Trees by Diana Beresford-Kroeger which highlights the value of trees in making life possible on earth. See also the Earthfacts.net pages on rainforests.

We learnt about Nature's Ecosystem Services and Natural Capital when Hunter Lovins visited our school and community in 2006

Nothing stands still. Our place is in a constant state of change where even small seemingly unimportant events can disturb the balance of life in massive ways which we cannot easily explain even by the best of western science and powerful computer modeling. Our world is a Living System with billions of years of history measured in ages where large cyclic temperature changes took place and dominant species were routinely replaced. See also this Video: "Into the cool" ( PW Montana)

It would be very cheeky of us to think that by putting up a weather station at our kura we could prove whether serious climate change was happening today or not. If we could, it would likely be a last ditch call to man the lifeboats. It would be almost impossible for our school working alone to find a single simple or even a complicated way to influence it. (We refer to the Cynefin Framework video on U-tube which, though coming from an organisational perspective, can help us put our understanding of today's diverse climate change thinking into perceptive). Here also is a 3 minute TED talk that shows How complexity leads to simplicity not more complication

Our aim is to take an indigenous science "reflective learning" perspective which has for eternity gathered and passed on wisdom based on the observation of nature and its processes, in the form of oral stories, places and history. We use all the technology we can find to enhance our ancestors traditional observation processes, including such things as the data collected by NASA satellites and other established scientific research. With the weather station we continue to look closely for lessons in the world around us, using today's technology to enhance and consolidate this wisdom and learn more about the patterns in our planet's complex systems. This we share and research on the web with all others who share our core values - We have a saying at our school. "We have no room around here for matapiko (stingy) gatekeepers" - those who hold all their information and power in their own back pocket and don't share it or test it against other minds and experiences.

This program fits within the wider Kaitiakitanga Program and Network www.kaitiakitanga.net (Strong Sustainabilty) that grew out of the Tipu Ake Organic Leadership Model inspired and shared by our kura and community www.tipuake.org.nz (Thriving within natures's world of complexity where everything is inter-dependent and nothing is black and white)

Our School Research - work and results are highlighted below in the areas of Green text with links to supporting detailed reports

Weather Climate, Environmental and rainforest value awareness research

Our  Rainforest Value Awareness Research Program : http://www.whirinakirainforest.info/ecosystem_services_value/

Part of our Kaitiakitanga Program  www.kaitiakitanga.net and

Compliments Enviroschools Resources   http://www.enviroschools.org.nz/

and Ecoliteracy / Living Systems Thinking / complexity school programs http://www.ecoliteracy.org

 

Our Kura Supporting  Projects:

Project 1: Our Weatherstation installation and Energy  Study ( Climate Science and Energy, Housing Design, Insulation )

Project 2:  Our Whirinaki River out-flow logging project  (Science, Maths, Literacy, Hydrology, Water Cycle) Te Whaiti spreadsheet , Canyon spreadsheet

Project 3:  Building our Forest Environment Sensing Stations (Electronics, Design, Construction, PICAXE )

Project 4: Catchment watercycle mass and energy flows  (information processing - using above) initial spreadsheet

Project 5: * Radiation Flows - Absorbtion, Reflection, Radiation, - Rainforest, Forestry and Farming land use - (Physics and Biology)

Project 6: * Water Quality - Rainforest, Forestry and Farming land use erosion and runoff (Geography, Chemistry and Biology)

Project 7: * The Underground Forest - Soils and Mycorrhyzal Fungi (Micro biology, Biology, Botany, Soils, Food)

Project 8: Growing Communications Skills and Tools (project documentaion, data managemant, multimedia, art, presentation)

* emerging projects - seeds being planted and nurtured for the future

(We use Tipu Ake Rugby Scrum Metaphors - own own Learning version of Agile Project Leadership on these projects)

Reflective Questions (RQ's) are raised in red in the text below

RQ: Could more schools encourage students to be systems thinkers doing more discovery based project learning?

Check out the Habits of a Systems Thinker - Systems Thinking in Schools from the Walters Foundation
Read a supporting article on Systems Thinkng System Dynamics and K-12 Teachers by Jay Forrester from MIT.
What our school has learnt and shares about Organic Leadership for a Complex world
View a video clip on Gamifying Education - making discovery learning fun

What all those weather station readings might mean!

TEMPERATURE: (normally shown on graphs as red - bold for outside temperature)

This measures how much heat energy something has. Something with a higher temperature tends to lose its heat energy to things with lower temperature in three main ways (that we understand at present, but also magnetic fields also transfer energy(heat) - see electric toothbrush picture below)

(a) Conduction - when we touch something cold, heat is transferred from our hand to it
(b) Convection - when a gas or fluid passes by something - eg hot air rises to the top of a room
(c) Radiation - when heat is transferred through space - we feel a fire's warmth across a room
note: a dull black object transmits / absorbs heat radiation best - shiny white things reflect it

We measure a number of different temperatures:

(1) TEMP - Outside air temperature (shaded in a white ventilated box 1200mm above ground level)
(2) Soil - Soil temperature 300mm below ground - it remains much more stable
(3) Black plate temp - heats up in the sun and gets colder than outside temp on clear frosty nights
(4) Classroom 1 temperature - allows us to see when heaters are left on after school
(5) eg Classroom 2 temperature - a portable sensor we can use for experiments
(6) eg Ponga Whare) temperature - another portable sensor (coming)

(7) Pole top Temperature - measured by the anemometer
(8) Wind Chill Temperature - We calculate this from the anemometer pole top outside temperature and wind speed This indicates the extra risk we face from hypothermia in high winds particularly if we are wet

Frost: Caused by surface heat radiated out into space on clear nights

Getting the weather station taught us much about frost. Its readings showed us that the ground surface where the frost formed was losing its heat somehow, whilst the ground temperature 300 mm down was higher than zero and the pole top temperature was higher as well (have you seen horticulturists using helicopters to force warm air down to stop frost damage. We got the answer to this when we found some amateur weather station operators used what was called a "black body sensor in a jam jar" to measure night time cloud levels. From this we conclude that on a clear night the earth's surface radiates its heat out to cold space in all directions. When clouds or mist are present this radiated heat is reflected back. We therefore built a black body sensor for our station. (One of our local people who works a lot in the bush suggested that the nursery trees in the forest do this too - the underside of Ferns are silver!)

RQ: That is getting us thinking about suitable shade houses for winter crops. It reminds us that our old people knew something as we hear stories about them growing kumara and other food crops on the forest floor.

HUMIDITY: (Normally shown on graphs as blue - bold for outside humidity)

This measures how much moisture (dampness) the air holds. As the temperature of air rises it can hold more water vapour. When it holds the maximum it can for that temperature it is said to have reached its "saturation" point . Our humidity sensors actually measure "relative humidity" which is a percentage of saturation ( eg 60% means the air is holding 60% of the total amount of water it could hold at the current temperature). This means that when the temperature rises (eg when the sun come out) the humidity goes down.

If we know the temperture and relative humidity we can calculate the Absolute Humidity ( in grams of water per cubic metre of air). That may be a better measure when we are looking at the effects of leaf transpiration and ground evaporation in a forest environment - look up table

If we are all sealed inside a room (or a car) breathing out moisture (and particularly if we are wet) we find the air beside the windows reaches saturation point and starts condensing out as water - fogging things up. On miserable damp days, if we get some colder air from outside and heat it up (as do our classroom heat pumps) we can lower the humidity and so increase the comfort of our room.

The people of Te Urewera are referred to as the "Children of the Mist". Our rainforest traps a lot of moisture in the air around it, so when the temperature goes down at night our ancestor Hine Pukohurangi (The Mist Maiden) comes out to embrace our Maunga (Mountains) and valleys. That brings us to "The Dew Point", another temperature that our weather station calculates for us from the humidity and temperature readings. It tells how far the temperature must fall until the air is saturated and cannot hold any more vapour, so it starts condensing out as a fine mist that hangs around until the morning sun warms it up again. In that way, we are daily reminded that our ancestress Hine Pukohurangi is yet another kaitiaki that that protects us by regulating out of control surface freezing.

RQ: What is Hine Pukohurangi teaching us about the Greenhouse Effect and the role clouds may play in climate control (see later)?

RQ: Can we see a relationship between humidity levels and the presence of clouds, rain or water lying about on the ground. Does this help us identify why some days are good for drying on clothes hung on the line?

We measure four different Relative Humidity readings:

HUMIDITY -

!1) Outside air relative humidity (shaded in a ventilated white box 1200mm above ground)
(2) Classroom 1 humidity - allows us to see when heaters are left on after school
(3) eg Classroom 2 humidity - a portable sensor we can use for experiments
(4) eg Ponga Whare humidity - another portable sensor (coming)

(4) Dew Point Temperature - The temperature at which dew forms - calculated from above by anemometer on pole top

RAINFALL (normally shown on graphs as light green)

Rain, hail and snow and snow works in a similar way to above. Clouds coming in from the across the sea arrive carrying a lot of moisture. When they hit the cold air above our forest clad mountains the water condenses out and falls as rain. If it freezes in the clouds it falls as snow, if the rain freezes on the way down, it falls onto us as hail.

We measure and accumulate data for this

RAIN / 1Hh - rain for last hour included in retained statistics and graphs
Rain / 24 hr - rainfall readings for the last hour
Historical rainfall records by month, year etc

On our weather page we point to the Metview 7 day rain forecast map. Be sure to check this if you want to go tramping in our area.

RQ: Could we use this to estimate the total volume of rain falling in our catchment each hour, then measure how much flows out under the Whirinaki Bridge by measuring the cross section of the water and its velocity (speed). By calculating the percentage of river outflow, the rest probably either stored in the forest/soil/underground or recycled to the atmosphere by surface evapouration and plant transpiration.

RQ: Could we do the same with a stream coming off the pine forest before or after an area was clear felled - to see the difference

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: (normally shown on graphs boldly in dark green)

As air gets warmer by getting heat from the sun, from the warmer ground or wherever other means, it expands in volume so it tends to rise. This means that the air pressure around the globe varies. It is measured as maximum at sea level reducing as our altitude increases and moving to zero at the outer edge of our earth's atmosphere.

The Barometric Pressure is actually the weight of the column of air above it divided by the area of the bottom of the column eg it has a unit of Kilograms per square metre or equivalent.

Our weather station adjusts the actual pressure measured at the altitude the station is at to an equivalent sea level reading so different results from different places and altitudes can be compared.

Generally speaking, if the barometric pressure is rising, then we probably have good sunny weather with clear skies coming. If it is falling, we can normally expect lots of clouds and rain. Before we had a weatherstaion to graph this, we used to tap the barometer on the wall to see if the pressure needle moved in the rising or falling direction.

RQ: Could we work out the relationship between barometric pressure and the weather we observe around us. If so we could do our own weather forecasting.

WIND: (normally shown purple on graphs)

If the barometric pressure is high at one place the air will tend to flow to other places where the pressure is lower. We we call wind. The Metrological Service publish a weather map where the lines "Isobars" join points where the pressure is the same. Where the isobay lines are close together, we can expect a lot of air movement, winds and storms.

In high pressure regions the wind tends to rotate clockwise in the Southern hemisphere and anti clockwise in the Northern hemisphere. We have anticyclones where the pressure is low that bring bad weather whereas in the northern hemisphere we hear about cyclones bringing storms and tornados.

Check how a weather map can show us how storms arise in the metservice videoclip

On our Whirinaki on line weatherstation page we have links to other weather information that covers the whole region and more

The Anemometer (Wind gauge) is on the pole top 9 metres high and measures:

(1) hourly wind velocity
(2) wind gust velocity
(3) Wind direction

RQ: Could we look at the published weather maps and see how much wind speed we could expect and what direction it is from.

UV RADIATION: (normally shown bold yellow/gold on graphs)

Our weather station measures Ultraviolet levels using a sensor on the top of our pole to try to reduce its measurements being effected by ground level morning mist.

The UV Index tells us when the risk of skin cancer is highest, warning us to shield and protect ourselves from the sun. On the positive side it also is a source of Vitamin D

A Question our observations are asking us?

RQ: We are trying to understand what we observed on 5th and 6th of Sept 2009 and 22 April 2011 (See example b below). Two cloudless days where we might have expected our black plate absorber and our UV detector to show a similar curve with both peaking at midday when the sun was highest. Instead, one day had a high UV peak around 10 am and the next had a high peak 3 pm. We are often reminded that "you can get sun burnt even when the sun is shaded by cloud". We wonder if this is due to the ozone hole ozone hole which rotates daily in a irregular fashion over Antarctica and is worst after the Polar winter. If our theory is right, then these peaks may be the UV that is coming through this hole when it lines up with the polar lights (Aurora) that are formed when solar winds interact with the earth's magnetic field high above the south pole. While UV from the Sun comes from the North, UV if it came through the ozone hole would come from the South direction. We could confirm this by watching how it was effected by clouds in either the North or the South, or by physically shading our UV detector from the North Sun.

For more science about this, see GLOBAL TEMPERATURE BALANCE MECHANISMS below.

BLACK PLATE ABSORBTION AND RADIATION (Something special we measure)

We have built our own black plate sensor to try to learn about the level of radiation we get from the sun by day and what happens to it. This causes the temperature of the plate (which we measure and compare with the ambient air temperature) to rise , particularly if there are no clouds in the way. This you can see in the following daily reading graph. We found this on an amateur weather guru discussion group where they called this sensor a "Black plate in a jam jar sensor " or "A night-time cloud detector"

What really surprised us was that the black plate temperature fell below ambient air temperature on clear cloudless and cold nights (often before a frost the next morning). We think that our plate was radiating its energy out towards the coldness of space.

A matt black surface is a good absorber and radiator - we already understand that from the difference between wearing a black or white shirt on a sunny day. Our sensor is like a little glasshouse which traps the sun's energy within it. That helps us understand the greenhouse house effect which happens in our earth's atmosphere, keeping the sun's warmth in like a blanket or greenhouse. That also happens in our homes if we design them right. See healthy homes design / retrofit study by Otago University Physics Department

The outgoing radiation temperature drop is probably smaller than it should be because it is in the infrared part of the spectrum and the glass and plastic coke bottle bottom we used to double insulate the sensor (so it does not lose too much heat energy by conduction or convection), is not good at passing infrared radiation. Here is more information on the the properties of glass as used for designing windows in buildings.

On 1 Nov 2010 we " calibrated" our black plate radiation sensor by glueing a resistor to it then heating it with an electric current

The result was surprisingly quite linear, requiring around 0.07 Watts for each degree C rise above ambient.
It took around 20 minutes to get to a steady temperature after each change
The radius of the plate is 0.035 M so its area is 0.00385 square metres
That means a square metre of the earth's surface would give around 18.2 watts per degree C rise in sensor temperature
On a clear Nov Day we see the sensor temperature rise to around 70 degree - 50 degrees above the ambient of 20 Degrees
That means the peak energy the sun gives us is around 910 watts per sq metre of the earths surface in Whirinaki in Oct / Nov
That relates to our 10 Watt solar panel with an area of 0.1 squares meters that captures only around 10 % of this
(This also relates reasonably to the sun's annual average of 342 watts /sq metre from the sun ( including day night winter summer) of which
168 reaches the surface - refer Global Heat flow Diagram by Kiehl and Trenberth below).

The area of the Whirinaki catchment above the Te Whaiti Bridge is approx 32,600 hectares
One hectare is 10,000 square metres so this gives a catchment area of 326,000,000 Square Metres
At 910 watts per square meter, that means the peak energy our catchment gets from the sun in Nov is around 297 GigaWatts

Further down this page you will see that most of the suns energy drives forest transpiration / catchment evaporation (local ground level cooling) and is radiated back out into space (global cooling) causing it to condense and fall as rain again. A smaller proportion of this is carried by the Whirinaki river back to the sea where it evaporates, (cooling the surface) and returns as vapour pumped back to the catchment by the forest and by wind. The latent heat of evaporation radiated to support the river flow of around 10 cusecs (cubic metres per second) in summer is around 25 GWatt (24 hours /7days per week - refer to Whirinaki river flows spreadsheet

Compare that with the peak output of the Huntly Thermal Power Station 1,435 MW (1.435 GigaWatts) or the total NZ generations capaciity
(9.5 GWatts) or total NZ energy 49 GWatts or world's energy consumption of around 14,000 GWatts (14 TeraWatts)
The total land area of New Zealand is 268.000 Square Kilometres (26.8 Million Hectares) or 822 times Whirinaki.
Conclusion: We have no shortage of energy coming from the sun. we just need to discover smarter ways of capturing and using it

RQ: Compare the black plate temperature with the ambient temperature graph. This will give us an idea of how much of the suns energy is reaching our place during the day and the effect of clouds in reducing this. Also look at this difference by night to see earth radiating its heat on clear nights when it feels frosty. How does this change when clouds or mist comes out to stop this flow (greenhouse effect) . Try to work out if clouds over a rainforest may be good or bad for climate change?

SOME EXAMPLE DAYS:

(a) Cold frosty cloudless winter day

(b) Evening after a brilliantly clear still day - - note how fast the air temperature (RED) drops as soon as the sun goes down. The back plate is radiating over that time

RQ: Is that energy lost by GROUND IR radiation into space or plant leaf transpiration? Is it from the farming area around the station in the valley most of which is lower than the school site or is it cold air that falls into the valley from the surrounding forested mountain tops?

c) Daytime UV peaks at different times - also the difference between frosty and snowy morning

Notice that for the frosty morning the wind (PURPLE) was very low whereas the snowing evening had plenty of wind and high gusts

Notice that for both seemingly clear days ( eg smooth black plate temperature rise to peak and fall) the UV peak did not match this and was very different for two adjacent days.

Here is another example that we can't explain?

RQ: .... Can we look at north and South cloud cover to see if that UV is coming from the sun in the North or through the ozone hole in the South?

GLOBAL TEMPERATURE BALANCE MECHANISMS (we are trying to relate our observations to these)

from http://oceanworld.tamu.edu/resources/oceanography-book/Images/greenhouseeffect.jpg

Warning: We need to understand that outgoing infrared radiation is not the sun's narrow rays that are reflected by the earth as the angles in this diagram above might confuse us into thinking. Rather its the heat of the earth being radiated in all directions above the horizon towards the coldness of space. Here is a more detailed picture of heat flows.

Earth's energy budget diagram. Incoming sunlight is on the left; outgoing infrared or "longwave" radiation is on the right.
Credits: From Kiehl, J. T. and Trenberth, K. E. (1997). "Earth's Annual Global Mean Energy Budget". Bulletin of the American Meteorological Association 78: 197-208

Note that at a geothermal energy lecture at The University of Auckland, School of Engineering on 17th July 2011, Michael O'Sullivan quoted that the energy reaching the surface from with the earth's core (nuclear reactions still going on there) is on average around 65 mWatts (0.065W) per square metre. We live on the volcanic plateau where the figures are much higher than this.

 

Danger Warning : Take notice of the principle patterns and flows above, not the actual numbers

These are values that are averaged across all of the earth's surface over a whole year to give an artificial balance. The earth is a complex system that is diverse, non linear and always far from equilibrium, so there are no simple cause and effect answers. Different localities, lattitudes, terrain, vegetation, daytime, nighttime, summer, winter all have their own characteristic cycles that are inter-dependent, so the local figures will be quite different from those in the diagram above. For example the water cycle Evapo-transpiration heat flows over a rainforest in strong overhead summer sunlight will be many times the above average levels of 78 watts per square metre and (see later information on the Water Cycle: catchment water flow balances, The forest heat pump, Biotic Regulation)

Our research program - enhancing our understanding of this diagram

We recognise that our earth is a complex system subject to many inter-dependent and diverse influences, cycles and energy gradients, which means that at any time it most of it is far from the equilibrium ( balanced) state. That means things are non-linear so small changes can have massive effects in unexpected ways. In the following sections you will see some of that researchers we have connected with many of whom are probing beyond mainstream science thinking.

We appreciate the importance of the greenhouse effect and the effects of CO2 build up in the atmosphere; if we do control cycle that is a violation of The Natural Step system conditions of sustainability 1 "Nature is not subject to systematically increasing concentrations of substances extracted from the Earth's crust" As most of the world's science around climate change if focused on this, we have left that to others and concentrated on the water cycle which relates more closely to our rainforest catchment.

Rather than trying to average out that flows as above, we will instead try to look for the peaks and variability in the flows; trying to better understand nature's patterns so we have a chance of encouraging those human activities that support it and discouraging those that don't. Some of the questions we are looking to explore (red letters on the above diagram) for our place Whirinaki are:

A. What is the scale and variability of the sun's incoming energy to earth? (sun activity, orbits etc)
B. How much of this Energy reaches our catchment?
C. What proportion of this energy drives transpiration and the Vertical Water Cycle? Could some of this bi-pass the greenhouse barrier?
D. What is the "living" nature and mechanism of the cloud systems over rainforests , including night-time mist?
E. How does the upper surface terrain of the clouds effect their ability to radiate heat out to space - needed to cause condensation and rainfall?
F. How does the daytime sun "dissolve" rainforest clouds, passing energy to other cooler parts of the planet via the horizontal water cycle flows?
G. Does the 3D terrain of our catchment, the trees, and leaves on them change what is reflected, absorbed, converted to growth or used to drive transpiration
H. How much does the 3D terrain of our catchment, the trees and leaves on them enhance earths ability to radiate heat to space.

I. How are the water and carbon cycles related?

J. When we cut down forests what do we lose: climate, energy, diversity, species, medicines, resilience, learning etc

 

Some introductory resources:

There is now great interest in Rainforests for their global temperature regulation mechanisms. Read the Science Mag article on "The Future of Forests" and view the video there which highlights a 2008 report by Gordon Bonan "Forests and Climate Change: Forcings, Feedbacks, and the Climate Benefits of Forests".
Also read "Forests now in the fight against Climate Change"

More student and teacher resources and more detail are at Windows to the Universe site
particularly see page on Global Warming, Clouds and Albedo - Feedback loops and reflect on the questions

A paper by Jose Rial and international partners on climate complexity, non linearity feedbacks and critical thresholds

They say: " The earths climate system is highly non-linear : inputs and outputs are not proportional, change is often episodic and abrupt, rather than slow and gradual, and multiple equilibria are the norm" .... "It is imperative that the Earth's climate system research community embraces this nonlinear paradigm if we are to move forward in the assessment of the human influence on climate" ... They conclude: "We recommend the development of new educational initiatives on environmental/climate science. The complexity of the climate system , its myriad of parts, interactions, feedbacks and unsolved mysteries needs researchers able to transcend their own specialties, jump over and build bridges across disciplinary boundaries"

 

(a) Energy flow from the Sun that is absorbed by our Earth: - Global Heating and Energy Cycles

The FusedWeb information on our Sun tells us that the Sun has a very high core temperature of around 15,000,000 Degrees Centigrade which reduces as we move outwards to the photosphere which is the zone from which the sunlight we see is emitted, at around 6,000,000 Degrees Centigrade. This surface temperature can change widely due to surface storms, turbulence and sunspot action which seems to exhibit an approximately 11 year sunspot cycle.

This website also tells us about the massive magnetic fields that our sun has around it. It's solar storms boil off protons and electrons that reach the earth as "solar winds"at velocities of 500 km/s. Microwave ovens also transfer heat energy to cook food.. maybe we can think of our earth as being within the sun's "Microwave Oven".

See spaceweather.com to find out what's coming up, so what to look for

(Check out the NASA site about the Sun's magnetic field and also a report on the magnetic portals called Flux transfer events FTE that open between the sun and earth on an approximately eight minute cycle). That tells us that our earth really does lives within the sun's solar system

On 3rd August 2010 the sun sent a lot of solar wind particles toward earth. Unfortunately the weather was very overcast when it reached us on 4/5th August so we were not able to see if it caused any change to the UV radiation readings at our place. However we did access HAARP Magnetometer readings from Alaska to see the resultant magnetic field blips.

The Sun's magnetic fields (particularly in times of sunspots) react and interfere with the earth's magnetic field. This may be another form of energy input to earth. (We already know from our electric toothbrushes that changing magnetic fields can also transfer energy. We see how an electromagnet in the base transfers energy to charge the the battery without any physical connection). In our industry (eg aluminium production) we use this effect for induction heating. Induction heating is also used in some stove cook tops. If our earth sits within in a changing magnetic field then perhaps that may cause heat to be generated in its core with result that it could even be getting hotter rather than cooling down as we might think? If it was, we might expect the expect earth's core to expand within the earth's crust with resultant plate movement (earthquakes) and volcanic activity.

 

Check out the IRIS site (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismoloagy) for animations about earthquakes and earth movements. Such movements can cause the earth to change its axis, balance and speed of rotation slightly.

Information on Plate Tectonics, Earth's Magnetic Fields and a Glosarry of Seismic terms

Our Whirinaki valley was formed by the Te Whaiti faultline so we have an interest in the recent earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan, both on the Pacific "Rim of fire". We would like to somehow measure seismic and magnetic field measurements at our place (see IRIS Earthscope)

Visit the Earth's Magnetic Field Wiki and a video on "Tracking changes in the Earth's Magnetic Field" and a British Geological Survey Overview of the Earth's Magnetic Field) These shows that our earth has a daily magnetic cycle which is perhaps what the ozone hole movements show us. These ozone hole measurements suggest that the earth's magnetic field may be rotating relative to the earth, in which case it could be acting like the rotating magnetic field in an induction motor. If its tuning faster than the earth's rotation will tend to speed up the earth's rotation speed , making our days shorter. If its turning slower it will tend to slow down the earth's rotation.

Measurement of our day length shows that there are both yearly day length variation cycles (likely due to seasonal ice cap, sea and core movements) cycles and longer cycles that seem to be around 15 years at present. (More information about rotations and orbits - also dig deeper into this science site including the Neverlost page on Polynesian Navigation which relied on observation , observation and more observation of stars, clouds, weather, waves, birds and all of nature to learn the patterns that they embrace)

The sun though very hot relative to earth's temperature, is however a small diameter radiator that only fills a small area of our earth's sky. In addition, its narrow rays reach us at a variable angle to the earth's surface so not all of it is absorbed. We can see this by the way our black plate (at our side of the earth) changes over the day in our daily heating cycle caused by the earth's rotating around its own axis. More still, as a result of our earth's orbit around the sun, the sun's angle is higher in summer and lower in winter. We see this annual cycle showing in the maximum, average and minimum temperature our black body sensor reaches each day over the whole year.

In addition there are some longer timescale changes in climate called Milankovich Cycles that arise because of the earth's orbit cycles that include (a) Precession—the orientation of Earth's axis of rotation, (b) Eccentricity—the shape of Earth's orbit around the sun and (c) Obliquity—the angle between Earth's axis and a line perpendicular to the orbital plane. You can see these graphically here. The time for each of these cycles are different ranging between 22,000 and 96,000 years

This scientific paper Celestial Climate Driver: A Perspective from Four Billion Years of the Carbon Cycle attempts to compare observed temperature changes over a long time time with sun's activity. It acknowledges that the earth's climate is is a complex system significantly driven by the sun via the water cycle which may be even more important that just CO2 levels as a driver. This adds another dimension to the Intergovernment Panel on Climate Change (IPPC) Research reports that are increasingly concerned about the human induced emissions and their effects on global temperatures that are being observed to rise at increasingly rapid rates over the last two decades.

If we begin to understand the impact of our sun on our earth, perhaps we need to remind ourselves that that our solar system is but a tiny item in the much wider universe that makes up Ranginui (Sky and Heavens). Everything is connected by whakapapa like a family and inter-dependent.

Here is Wiki on Cosmic Rays and also a publication from K Scherer and others that suggests that cosmic rays may effect cloud seeding

(b) Energy flows from Earth into space - Global Cooling Mechanisms

We understand from the diagram above that if energy is not reflected or radiated back out into space to balance what is coming in from the sun, our world would get hotter and hotter. The effect of the greenhouse effect is to reduce this outgoing energy flow, so to help maintain our climate on earth we need to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the wasteful consumption of resources that create them. That is all good, but we think the world may be more complex than that and that there may be other things like cutting down rainforests that may be important too.

We are particularly interested in how the rainforest ecosystem (and the cloud systems that are part of it) might help earth radiate and reflect its excess heat energy outward to space, We see evidence of this process on frosty mornings. We think that school science and engineering programmers have taught the world well about the incoming radiation we get from the Sun that we feel every day, and we are pretty clear about the reflection of the suns narrow beam that we see when we play with mirrors outside. However the concept of outgoing radiation from 3-dimensional bodies that flows in all directions to others with a lower temperatures is harder to get our scientific heads around.

The Earth's temperature is typically between minus 30 to plus 30 Degrees Centigrade and at very worst the temperature of space will probably be at absolute zero ( minus 273 degrees Celsius), so unlike the sun, the outgoing temperature difference is small. However, we wonder if maybe every tiny part of the surface of all objects on earth could be radiating its heat out to every part of space it can see that is above the earth's horizon. This we guess will happen 24 hours - day and night. We see this energy loss (cooling) as frost in the morning after clear cold nights. We wonder if a three dimensional forest cut down to make farmland for food or bio fuels production increases or decreases the heat energy our earth is able to radiate to cool itself. We hope to find this out somehow by some local climate experiments and observations around our rainforest Whirinaki: Te Pua o Tane .

Many support our theory that rainforests are important for global cooling and temperature regulation:

Our good friend and Whirinaki Rainforest patron Prof David Bellamy has told us for years that old growth forests with all their diversity help regulate the natural cycles of our world and its climate. We hope we can one day learn and demonstrate what he means by that. That matches what our ancestors tell us that Tane - god of the forests is the kaitaiki (guardian enabler and provider) of all life.

On 2nd Dec 2011 LAB Published Columbia: In the eye of the storm an article by Peter Bunyard. That resonates with much of what we are observing in Whirinaki.

Read a story man-has-been-provoking-climate-change-for-thousands of years - A new report on land cover changes (Jan 2011) by Jed Kaplan and team

Also a blog by Folke Gunther (Sweden) "What are rainforests Good for" includes a NOAA map of the world using satellite data that shows all that the cool spots are not just at the poles but include rainforest areas near the equator). See NOAA- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration site. Find out about the AVHRR - Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer in satellites orbiting above the atmosphere that collect this data. Also see the NASA Rainforests at the Crossroad page that explains remote sensing by satellites 700km up

For a more academic investigation of rainforest effects on temperature see Eric Schneider and James Kay "Order from Disorder - The Thermodynamics of Complexity in Biology" and "Life is a manifestation of the second law of thermodynamics". In the latter they quote:

" The thermodynamic principle which governs the behaviour of systems is that, as they are moved away from equilibrium [balance] , they will utilise all avenues available to counter the applied gradients; as the gradients increase, so does the system's ability to oppose further movement from equilibrium ....

We suggest that life exists on earth as another means of dissipating the solar induced [thermodynamic] gradient ....

Much of this dissipation is accomplished by the plant kingdom ( Less than 1% of it through photosynthesis, with most of the dissipation occurring through evaporation and transpiration ....

Although each tree species has its own genetically endowed form, the energy capturing aspect of an isolated tree leads to its magnificent symmetry, Canopies of plants of many species arrange themselves into leaf index assemblies to optimise energy capture and degradation.

Tropical rain forests produce a prodigious [very large] amount of water vapour via this process, and convective induced cooling produces high clouds which tend to reinforce the cooling of the rain forests. The coupled rainforest cloud system lowers the earth to space gradient even more than the forest alone ...

Interestingly enough, the tropical rain forests with their coupled cloud system, with the sun directly overhead, have the same surface temperature [as measured by satellites above the atmosphere] as Canada in the winter"

(c) The importance of rainforest transpiration and evaporation - Driving the water / weather cycles

Here is a little experiment we can do to help understand leaf transpiration: How Much Water Does a Tree Transpire in One Day?

It comes from the LEARN Atmospheric Explorers Website which has much more information and teacher resources

Eric Schneider (See his book summary "Into the Cool" and its introductory video on energy capture and forests) and his reminds us that

... whilst we rightly value a tree for its ability to absorb CO2, the transpiration value of a tree is at least 100 times more important than its carbon storage value.

. . A typical tree is pumping around 60 litres of water from its roots per day that it transpires (swets out) as vapour to the atmosphere, cooling the leaves in the process to stop them overheating and drying out. One litre of water converted to vapour requires an energy input of 2260 kiloJoules. (one joule per second equals an energy flow of one watt). The latent heat of evaporation in the tree, therefore produces around 60 litres per day x 2260,000 joules per litre / 24 x 60 x 60 seconds per day = 1555 watts of local cooling effect. If that tree covers say 10 square metres of the earth's surface that means its cooling value is around 155 watts per square metre. (That is in the same order as the 160 watts per square meter (mean) from the sun shown reaching the earth in the greenhouse effect diagram above)

That moisture given off raises the humidity of the local atmosphere so that when the temperature falls below the dew point it condenses as clouds, mist, dew, frost snow or rain to give that energy out again to suppress overcooling and support life in the region around it, growing even more plants, trees and all the diverse species that grow around them. We call that the water cycle.

Jan Veizer another Canadian researcher in a report "Celestial Climate Driver - A perspective from four Billion Years of the Carbon Cycle the Sun as the power behind the water cycle" highlights the importance of the water cycle to climate.

(This paper suggests that during photosynthesis that a tree has to exhale almost one thousand molecules of water for every single molecule of CO2 that it absorbs)

In a Sept 2010 in a slideshow "The role of water in the fate of carbon dioxide: implications for the climate system" he provides more evidence about the importance of rainforest systems as a regulatior/modulator of climate. That came out of the Ferguson - Veizer paper 2007 "Coupling of water and carbon fluxes via the terrestrial biosphere and its significance to the Earth's climate system" This analysed Water Balance flows in some 15 different international watersheds see their fig 7 below

Figure 7. Conventional annual water balances for the
selected watersheds. ET often exceeds R, implying that
more water may be transferred to atmosphere each year as
water vapor than is transferred to the oceans via river water.
1, North Saskatchewan River; 2, South Saskatchewan
River; 3, Ottawa River; 4, St. Lawrence River; 5,
Mississippi River; 6, Bani River; 7, Upper Niger River; 8,
Black Volta River; 9, White Volta River; 10, Oti River; 11,
Nyong River; 12, Piracicaba River; 15, Murray-Darling
River.

 

Bow River catchmant picture from Wikipedia

The South Saskatchewan River Catchment (Canada) Water Balance. From the annual rainfall of around 480mm they calculated / measured:
Leaf transpiration Canopy evaporation (not reaching ground) Surface evaporation (ground , river, lakes etc) Run off (leaves the catchment via rivers)	50 % 23 % 07 % 20%

RQ: Is it likely that the Whirinaki with its much more dense and diverse vegetation and bush covered hills will be different to this

Preliminary estimates of the water balance in the Whirinaki;

Oct 2010 Rainfall recorded at Kura 102 mm (= 0.102 Metre)
x catchment area 32,600 hectares (326.000.000 Square M)
= 33.25 Mill Cubic Meters (= 33.25 Mill Tonnes) of water fell
/ 31 days/24 hrs/60 min/60 sec
= 12.41 Cumecs (cubic metres per sec) average rain in-flow

Condensing this water from vapour to cause rain requires it to give off 2260 Kilojoules of energy per litre which is largely then lost as radiation to space, so 12.41 Cumecs means 28 GW of cooling driven by the sun above Whirinaki

(That is around 28 times the Huntly power station steam plant output, so as a double check we phoned the power station and found their 4 boilers each evaporated 800 tonnes of water per hour to give max output of 1000 MW of electricity operating at 34 % thermal efficiency. Total boiler flow is therefore 800x4?60/60 = .67 Cumecs.)

River out flow at Te Whaiti bridge on 1/11/2010 ( preliminary estimates)
Sticks took 7 secs to flow 11 m under the bridge,
so Surface velocity = 1.57 m/sec
x depth correction factor 0.84
(we have built a flow turbine meter to to help check this factor)
= Effective river flow 1.2 Metre / sec
x Cross-section of water flow triangle (approximately a triangle)
(1/2 of 1.0 meter deep x 12m wide = 6 Square metres)
= 7.2 Out-flow in CUMECS (or around 60% of rainfall input) - this was a very wet month)

We then got NIWA readings from the Whirinaki flow guage at the Galatea Bridge which we scaled by 60% to get a figure for the catchment area above the Te Whaiti Bridge - see our first attempt for a catchment water balance for Oct 2010.

From our rainfall total for Oct 2010 of 102 mm =100%
Leaf transpiration Canopy evaporation (not reaching ground) Surface evaporation (ground, river, lakes etc) Run off (leaves the catchment via river)	xx % xx % xx % 60 %

 

Getting more data on water and energy flows in our catchment

On 17 Feb and on 10 March 2011we did a cross sectional area survey under the Te Whaiti Bridge and marked a river height scale on a support pile to help us create a graph of river height vs water flow in cusecs ( Cubic Meters per second) . Details and report here and our Te Whaiti Bridge Excel spreadsheet and Canyon Bridge Excel spreadsheet calculating river flows vs level (draft).

We built and programmed our own PICAXE river flow meter which we used to help us understand under water flows and turbulence .

We have built a solar powered PICAXE based sonar level sensor / data logger that hangs from the rail of the bridge to capture hourly river flow data. It measures the time taken by ultrasonic pulses to travel to the river surface and return to capture river height. We then use this to compute the river flow in Cumecs ( cubic metres per second - approximately tonnes per second). Each month this will be download into Excel files on a laptop for use in our research into catchment water balances. We fitted this on 2nd Nov 2011 and should have it operational by March 2-1

We have buiilt another to fit on the canyon footbridge and measure the hourly flow coming out of the native forest the top of the valley.

 

Some relative evapo-transpiration figures given to us by Maurice Duncan NIWA ChCh 11 Nov 2010 indicated
Pineforest 2.5mm , grassland 7 mm and Willows 22mm - He had no relative figures for native forest . He suggested we build simple raingauges in the forest to help estimate canopy evaporation (diversion). (See a home made tipping bucket rain guage that we got some ideas from thanks).

He alerted us to stem (trunk) flow which may be around 5%. He told of water balance research done over 11 years in the Maimai Forest catchment by Lindsay Rowe and Andy Pearce.
They point us to web resources "The effect of plantation forestry on water yield in New Zealand" by Barry Fahey and Pakuratahi - Tamingimingi Land Use Study Report. by Brenda Baillie comparing pasture and forestry catchments, and another Land-water interactions at Whatawhata, by John Quinn and Bryce Cooper that compared the effect on stream life in both native and pasture catchments. Also Forestry and water yield: the New Zealand example by Tim Davie and Barry Fahey which also compares catchment storage and flood flows.

Landcare Research public reports on Land Use and Water resources:
The Hydrology of Pinus Radiata Plantations - An Annotated Bibliography SMF 2167 report 1
The Hydrology of Douglas Fir Plantations/Forests - An Annotated Bibliography SMF 2167 report 2 New Zealand Land Use Hydrology - An Annotated Bibliography SMF 2167 report 3
Evaluation of Landcover Effects on Water Availability - An Annotated Bibliography SMF 2167 report 4
Hydrological Effects of Diffferent Vegetation Covers SMF 2167 report 5
A comparison of Streamflow from NZ Catchments with Different Vegetation Covers SMF 2167:rep 6

We are building four PICAXE 18M2 based forest environmental sensor units (mini weatherstations) that will monitor rainfall, temperature, air velocity, sunlight levels, soil moisture, and leaf moisture. We will locate these high in the native canopy, on the native forest floor, on open land and in exotic pine forest then compare results. It seems that very little research has been done to compare the contribution NZ native forest makes to climate with all its layers of species diversity, compared with more mono-culture based commercial land uses uses like agriculture and exotoc tree forest.

Each sensor station transmits its data by wireless to a forest logger unit where later its stored hourly readings can be downloaded to a laptop as a CSV file and thus to Excell for analysis. The logger has the capacity to store a over a months data from 4 stations.

For this project we have designed and built our own instrumentation using the PICAXE 18M2 Programable Interface Chip. Project details including software we will share later is at Forest Environment sensor station

This requires us to learn a lot about electronics and PICAXE programming. We thank Andrew Hornblow from Taranaki (who works with teachers and classes in many schools) for the exciting three days he spent with us in September 2011 helping us apply PICAXE. Andrew is part of the ETITO (Electrical and Technology Industry Training Organisation) as a mentor on the Brightsparks mentoring and skills development program . He shares a lot of PICAXE application ideas and information here. More details on what we learnt on Andrew's visit

We got third place awards in the national BrightSparks Technology competitions for both our Tuakana class 13-14 years and Teina class under 12

This instrumentation will allow us to research much more about leaf evapo-transpiration - the way trees give out water pumped from their roots though the Stomata (holes in the underside of their leaves - see below). We know this is complex so we are just looking to find out what the patterns are - eg where and where it occurs and how it might effect water flow in the catchment.

RQ: Can we use our captured data to monitor hourly water and energy flows in and out of the Whirinaki Catchment to get some idea of what might be stored in clouds above and in the porous surfaces and vegetation of our catchment?

Here is an our first Excel attempt to estimate the Water and Energy Balances in Whirinaki for Oct 2010

RQ: Can we compare changes in flows out of the native Forest above the canyon, with that under the Te Whaiti Bridge which adds much more farmland and pine froest runoff?

RQ: Is there other evidence that over the native forest we get sharp local rain dumps and if so is that related to the rain seeding chemicals ( see recent report on Aerosols) given off over the forest,or even perhaps the presence of lightning in the mountain tops. Our sacred maunga [mountain] Tuuwatawata is a "rua koha" that attacts lightning giving it a bald top. (see relationship between lightning and rain fall in Cyprus)

RESOURCES: Find much more about WATER here

The NZ Hydrological Society some good school posters here
Encyclopedia and Glossary of water terms for schools including the following links:
Animated Water Cycle: Animated presentation of the water cycle.
The Water Cycle: Detailed description of the water cycle.
Activities: Go through these activities to learn about the process of water cycle.
Hydrologic Cycle: Explains the hydrologic cycle with diagrams and concise descriptions.
The Global Water Cycle: The program by the US Global Change Research Program to study the role of the water cycle in global climate change and variability.

Waterwatch Australia - resouces for schools and communities inerested in preserving their own water and place

(d) The Water Cycle - The rainforest makes up the world's biggest (and by far the smartest) heat pump.

It requires heat energy to be added ( eg a pot on the stove) to move water from the solid state (ice) into the liquid state and also more again from liquid to the gas state (that evaporation is how our body cools itself by perspiration / sweat). In the water cycle the evaporation from the forest cools the local area, then the water vapour is moved by the wind, diffusion and convection upwards and outwards. At higher altitudes in the atmosphere water molecules radiate their heat out to space (just like our black plate does on clear nights) so that they get colder and turn back into water (clouds and rain) or may lose even more heat and turn the into the solid state. (snow or hale).

We think heat pumps that move heat from inside a room to the outside (or vice versa when on reverse cycle) are new inventions (watch a video to see how they work) , but really...

nature has been doing this for ages, using sun's energy to drive the water cycle; taking heat by evaporation and transpiration in rainforests on the earth's surface and "pumping" it upwards by diffusion and convection where its heat is radiated out into space causing it to cool, condense and return to earth.

RQ: That makes us wonder if perhaps nature's heat pump may have a reverse cycle like our school one has too, taking heat from the sun in the upper atmosphere to turn clouds back into gas and transporting it to condense as rain, hail or snow to cool the climate in other parts of the world?

 

 

By Googling Rainforest Heat Pump we found an Article 13/3/10 on The Real Value of the Amazon Rainforest by Peter Bunyard, Science Editor of the Ecologist and of Science in Society which is based on the research on Biotic Regulation by Prof. Victor G. Gorshkov and Dr. Anastassia M. Makarieva in Russia - They conclude that

Natural forests draw atmospheric moisture inland from the ocean and compensate for river runoff. Forests make rivers. If you cut your forest, the winds will not blow from the ocean and will not bring you rain.

Due to their high leaf area index, natural forests maintain high transpiration fluxes (thick dark blue arrow), which exceed the evaporation fluxes over the ocean (thin dark blue arrow). The evaporated moisture undergoes condensation and disappears from the gas phase. Air in the atmospheric column above the forest rarifies. In the result, there appears ascending air motion over the forest canopy, which, in its turn, "sucks in" moist air from the ocean (light blue arrow). It then returns to the ocean in the upper atmosphere (dotted arrow) after precipitation of moisture over the continent. Read more here to help answer the following "chicken and egg" question

RQ: To know why it rains where forests grow and not vice versa?

This article also estimated that sun in the Amazon basin gives us an energy equivalent to some twenty Hiroshima 15 Kiloton bombs going off every second, day and night; around fifteen of these being used to drive evapotranspiration.

For more up to date info see the Biotic Regulation Newsletter 10 July 2011 and its references

Also read our corresondence with Victor and Anastassia up to Aug 2011

RQ: Could we estimate evaporation and condensation energy changes above our our Whirinak catchment and relate this "Heatpump" to the size of a power station that would be required to do the same?.

All this this highlights some of the thinking and warnings of Viktor Schaumberger 80 years ago and other researchers about the importance of water and maintaining its quality and power.

This relates to the Maori concept of enhancing the Mauri (lifeforce) of water .. and everything else around us. See this explained by Kepa Morgan at a youth forum with Michael Braungart (Cradle to Cradle design guru) on video here

In a news release A NASA Space Sleuth Hunts the Trail of Earth's water we have more satellite collected information that confirms the value of rainforests in driving the water cycle and cooling our earth.

 

(e) Do 3-D surfaces and structures effect energy absorption, reflection, radiation, conduction and convection?

There are many parts / levels that relate to this question, all of which in nature are reconnected in complex inter-dependent ways.

A powerpopint on Planetary Energy Balance and Radiative Transfer from CMMAP Centre for Multiscale Modelling of Atmospheric Processes

Blackbody Radiation Theory

We do know that matt (rough) black surfaces are better absorbers and radiators than shiny ones. That is why we are more likely to get burnt by a shiny stainless steel dish that holds its heat after being taken out of the oven, rather than a matt black enamel one where the handle and rim cool more quickly.

We are trying to learn much more about energy transfer by radiation. absorbtion, reflection, transmittance. That gets us thinking about the characteristics of what physicists call a "Blackbody"; an idealistic object that is exceptionally good at absorbing or emitting electromagnetic radiation. It reflects almost nothing.

To do this we have developed our own low cost visible spectrum analyser (pictured in prototype form here). That uses a Picaxe processor to process information from a number of new technolgy LED sensors from Ultraviolet radiation wavelengths , through visible light to Infrared wavelengths. We think this might be close to being a world leading application of this technology .

We understand that matt black enamel paint gets towards this state. Under a microscope its surface is seen to be very irregular.

Here is an article "On the importance of Black Bodies" by Lubos Moti Pilsen that explains this, radiation and also the Stefen- Boltzmann Equation

We found C G Abbott of the Smithsonian Institute gave a presentation on "Terrestrial Temperature and Atmospheric Absorption" to the Academy in 1917

RQ: Does this and other information above support the suggestion that a rainforest and the rain clouds coupled to it may behave more like a black body than most other terrains on earth?

Cloud structures (photo from South Island NZ by Merrick Davies).

We have found out about some new cloud formations called Asperatus which have very lumpy, wavelike surfaces that were reported from all around the world in 2009. Very dark and black but they disappear without fuss.

Read the Telegraph science story in which Professor Hardaker CEO of the Metrological Society said: "Clouds are very important in the Earth's climate as depending where they are in the atmosphere they will either reflect heat or absorb and trap heat. We are only just starting to understand that role."

Watch the video at Clouds - The wildcard of climate change from The National Science Foundation

NZ Weather forecaster Bob McDavitt in his Blog with photos states " Another good example is when moist air blows over a range of mountains and makes a system of mountain wave clouds.  In New Zealand this often happens, and people in Canterbury call the mountain wave clouds  “the northwest arch”

In her The mystery of Trees interview, Diana Beresford-Kroeger talks about the aerosols that trees emit "These attach to the moisture vapor above the trees and they’re responsible for clouds and weather patterns, and they’re responsible in the end really for our civilization, because if we have no moisture, we cannot survive which highlights the value of trees in making life possible on earth"

 

RQ: Is this nature responding to imbalances, by emerging in new shapes and forms that seems to replicate familiar patterns in nature. Is the view from the top similar and do they form at night to increase outward radiation when is not overbalanced by the sun? If so, are they another of nature's cyclic accumulator of water and energy that the sun evaporates and spreads to other place in its own good time?

 

Note: Around 80% of our atmosphere's mass and most of our weather occurs in the Troposphere layer which spans 0 to 10 Km above the earth's surface. Here is an article from The Encyclopedia of Earth which explains all the atmospheric layers and why the temperature changes in each.

(Souce of atmospheric temperature diagram: PhysicalGeography.net)

 

 

 

Rainforest geography ( Pictures from Whirinaki Rainforest, New Zealand and Frazer's Hill KL Malaysia)

The geographical terrain rainforests grow on are often mountainous and eroded by streams because of the rain they attract. They have very ragged 3-D surfaces which is further accentuated by the shape of trees that make up the canopy, which increases the area and surfaces (on many planes) that are able to radiate their energy out to space and the horizon in all directions

Our observations suggest that the mist that often forms in early morning is a regulator that tends to prevent overcooling by radiation (frost) and thus damage of forest species.

The Rainforest ecosystem is far more than just the terrain and the vegetation on the ground; it includes all the coupled clouds above and even more magic underground!

Rainforest canopy (photo Malaysian Rainforest, Kuala Lumpur)

A close up view of a rainforest canopy from above shows it to be a very irregular surface, made up with a rich diversity of species, forms and colours.

If all the species were behaving like a blackbody they would reflect no colour from sunlight and appear as black. However if we look at the same trees from afar as shown in the pictures above above, it appears as very dark and blue.

There is more information and class learning resources in the Rainbird Exploration Into Water Teaching Curriculum and their K12 Rainbird Rain Forest Teaching Curriculum which covers Rainforests and Weather, Light in the Rainforest, Ecology and Diversity, The Rainforest as an Economical Resource.

Tree and leaf structures (photo: ferns in Frazers Hill Malaysia)

Plants have very different forms, colours and leaf structures, depending on the role they have evolved to fill in nature. Some have wide solar facing leaves, others have dangling thin ones that are closely coupled by convection to the surrounding air. We think we have noticed that some fern leaves appear shiny when reflecting sunlight in some directions, but appear quite matt and dark when viewed in the shade or from other angles. For more information about this check the NASA Rainforests at the Crossroad site particularly the page on leaf reflectance and absorbtion

We have made connections with Ille Gebeshuber a physicist doing research work in the Frazer's Hill Rainforest site in Malaysia, seen here with one on the world's most powerful electron microscopes that can see down to atomic levels. Her and others work with biomimicry will likely help us better understand the role rain forests (and in particular the leaves of its trees) play in both absorbing , reflecting, radiating conducting and convecting energy, to help balance our world.

Check out these notes and images from a trip led by Ille into the Frasers Hill Rainforest in Malaysia. This is looking to nature for lessons and applications - Biomimicry in action

Scientific Expedition into Malaysian Rainforest Jan 2010
Report on Bukit Fraser 2010

We have also made contact with Bryony James at the Auckland University School of Engineering Research Centre for Surface and Material Science who has offered to help us analyse the surface and structure of some of our native plant leaves, so we hope to have some photos available soon.

In the meantime this is a 2400 x magnification of a Brussell Sprout leaf that she has given us showing 3 stamata and also waxy crystals that make it water resistant.

There are some brand new discoveries from the Carnegie Institute's Department of Global Ecology (published July 12 2010) Plant 'breathing' mechanism discovered

UC Berkeley Researcher Michel Maharbiz LEAF POWER: Artificial Glass Leaves Produce Energy via Transpiration
University of Washington researchers have experimented with Electric Circuits that run off tree power
MIT scientists create Artificial Solar Leaf That Can Power Homes
Singapore’s Solar powered supertrees under construction at gardens by the bay
More on Wiki about energy harvesting

 

Molecular structures (viewing nature at a nano-technology level)

Different molecules (eg Greenhouse gasses) absorb, reflect and radiate energy in different ways depending on the wavelengths involved

See the Wiki on Properties of Water The most abundant compound on the earth's surface.

(f) Some others things about our forest that we are looking at in Whirinaki

Frosts - and under-canopy eco-climates

RQ: In Whirinaki during winter we observe that frost occurs mainly on grassy frost flats, and on the branches of deciduous trees (often adjacent to streams running in valleys) where there is little chance for cold air to be dissipated by convection (air movement) or conduction of heat from the the ground (which is pumice and a good insulator). By comparison we less frequently see it on the native rainforest forest canopy treetops. We have some loose evidence (which we will confirm next winter) that frost is seen on the ground under some tree species but not others.

We are trying to understand how this might help us with our community garden

Inter-dependency dynamics in forests

In August 2011 we visited Julie Le Blanc -Biologist, Philippe Bilodeau - Guide and the team at the Chic Chocs Mountaintop retreat in Gaspesie, Quebec, and there noticed some interesting dynamic paring relationships between Birch, Pines and Fungi.

Chic Chocs Lodge, View, Waterfall, Pines grow behind birch, Fungi enters, Wrong side? Pine takes over

RQ: In the book Whirinaki- To Save a Forest there is a diagram that helps explain the species movement and inter-dependence in our forest and how new growth happens in the ecosystem it nurtures under its canopy. What can we observe here?

Mycorrhyzal fungi - nature's underground nutrient sharing network

At a deeper level we are also interested in what Paul Stamet tells us about the Mycorrhyzal fungi (Mycelium) that supports rainforest life underground but is invisible to the naked eye. Here is a page where the second videoclip talks about this in relation to city design. We have two books "Mycelium Running" by Paul Stamet and "Mycorrhizas - The new green revolution" (in English or French) by Fortin, Plenchette and Piche that help us.

Watch this video on The Social Network of Forests by Suzanne Simard.
See Shirley Kerr’s site on the Native NZ Fungi found in the Kaiimai Ranges (not too far from Whirinaki)

We have a Digital Microscope that allows us to help investigate plant root structures and what fungi species may be partnering with them.

RQ: How much does the presence of this underground fungi pipeline network increase the flow of water via roots and trunk?
RQ: We wonder if some of the introduced pest species growing rampantly in our catchment ( eg Gorse and Broom) are colonising with local fungi species, and if so how we could use these pests as nursery plants to help switch this back to native species?
RQ: Can we use Mycelium to help remediate old toxic sites in Whirinaki, as do our Kaitiakitanga Network friends with Joe Harawira in Whakatane?
RQ:: Can Mycelium companions enhance the effectiveness of stream bank riparian planting; not just as a physical / biological barrier to prevent farm / forestry topsoil / nutrient / pollution runoff into waterways, but also by extracting toxins and more that has already entered the waterway or lakes to help restore and purify them.

Catchment Water Quality - how much is it effected by different land uses

Our catchment contains separate areas of old Native Forest, Regenerating Native, Scrubland, Pine Forestry, Sheep Farming and Dairy farming.

our school and village is already required under health legislation to regularly test its water supply quality..

RQ: Can we measure the effect of land cover and use by monitoring water quality in streams that originate in each?
RQ: Can we as a Iwi, school and community of place, pioneer some radically new restoration practices in our catchment?

Rainforest destruction

RQ: The Rainforest Alliance Website tells us that the world is cutting down around 13 Million Hectares per year (An area the size of the state of Louisiana, or half the area of New Zealand) and this contributes about 20% of the world's CO2 emissions. It's no wonder things are running out of control .. and that has not even considered the transpiration and outgoing radiation cooling value discussed above.

This map shows us that Te Urewera (of which Whirinaki is a part) is the largest remaining concentrated area of native forest in New Zealand. Our ancestors remind us that it is the heart of Te Ika a Maui (the North Island). They knew that it was the "pump" that keeps the coastal regions alive and the ecosystem healthy.

Check this Kiwi conservation Club site to see what has been lost from 1000 years ago when maori first settled and more particularly since 184O when the Treaty Waitangi was signed. to start massive pakeha immigration.

 

Biomimicry - Learning about design from Nature

The Kaitiakitanga Network coordinated a Biomimicry Quest with Norbert Hoeller in Auckland in April 2010 to help draw national attention to this. Also another Biomimicry Forum with Megan Schuknecht in Dec 2011

This also relates to a youth forum on Cradle to Cradle Design with Michael Braungart in 2008 details here

 

(g) The Delicate and Complex Living World Energy Balancing Act

Amidst all the other cycles effecting conditions on earth for life, including , geological movements, water, nutrients, oxygen, nitrogen, CO2, growth, greenhouse gases, ozone depletion, and adaptive interdependent species, we can be sure that the situation is complex.

From a traditional thermodynamics perspective, when the energy coming in is equal to that going out, we can think simplistically and remind ourselves that conditions may for a short while look stable. Our real world is much more complex than that with physical, chemical, biological (and even spiritual components). It's equilibrium (balance) is always changing.

The difficulty we face is that the temperature of our planet and its climate is determined more by the difference between what is coming in and what is leaving, something we observe in our daily and seasonal cycles. For example if the average energy coming in from the sun was say 300 watts per square metre and what was leaving as radiation etc was say 300 watts per square metre, then a small (1%) change in the energy the sun was emitting, or a 1% restriction in the energy the earth could radiate or reflect back out to space as a result of greenhouse gas or cloud filtering / reflection ) may result in net temperature change effects on earth over time.

We have been told by a retired professor of engineering that the energy radiated by a hot body is proportional to the 4th power of its absolute temperature and that that means a small 1/4 % rise or fall in the sun's radiant temperature could result in a 1% rise or fall in the energy it radiates to earth. Conversely as a result of this, a 1/4 % rise in the earth's absolute temperature (around 293 degrees absolute = approx 0.75 degrees centigrade change), could result in a 1% increase in earth's outward outward radiated energy. (i.e. what we might see our black plate ( or our forest maybe) transmitting outwards on a clear cloudless night)

What no-one really understands yet is the wide range of highly inter-dependent natural regulating mechanisms that continually evolve in our universe in response to this. Our experiments with our energy capture box (photo) may help us understand just a little of this and also as a bonus help us make our houses more energy efficient

This complexity of course must not stop us from continuing to work with Papatuanuku and Ranginui and (our Mother Earth and Sky Father and Tane Mahuta the forest that separated them to make a space for life See origins story) to help the long proven natural kaitiaki processes that they give us; playing our part by doing things that help them keep all in balance. The wisdom our ancestors have passed down to us in challenging stories are our guide, as is the modern scientific emphasis on Biomimicry. If we refuse to do this, the universe will find its own ways to deal to a selfish species prone to comforting itself in the short term by domination and pollution; destroying the Mauri (Lifeforce) in the diversity of everything else around us that sustains life.

(h) THE MULTI TRILLION DOLLAR QUESTION??

RQ: What is the real value of the ecosystem services that rainforests and trees provide to support life on our planet??

Today we tend to assign our rainforests an economic value based on the following simplistic criteria:

1. What is its carbon sink capacity which we can multiply by the current carbon market CO2 price? (That tends to artificially value it more for growing young trees that absorb more carbon, yet this represents a small amount of energy a forest captures from the sun - most of it driving the transpiration / infrared radiation processes)
2. What is the value of the timber we could obtain by chopping it down? ( That tends to ignore the cost in CO2 and greenhouse gasses released back into the atmosphere when it is cut down)
3. What is the value of farming and other activity that this land could otherwise be used for? ( that tends to ignore the relative impact of the CO2 emissions generated by these other activities)

That simplistic criteria does not take into account it's true value including such things as:

1. The rainforest is more than just a collection of trees and plant species - it is a complex living ecosystem that includes all the clouds, gasses and air above it plus all the recycling species and fungi networks that convert / move nutrients in the earth (Papuanuku) below it. (The value of mycellium from in old growth forest video / website - Paul Stamets explains how it can help save our world)
2. Its contribution as a global cooling mechanism - dispatching infrared radiation in all directions out into space 24hrs per day /7 days) per week ( see above)
3. The Biotic pump effect that attracts water vapour evaporating over the sea to replace the water that rivers in forest catchments lose to the sea
4. The heat pump effect which converts water to vapour (particularly evapo-transpiration in forests) taking in energy to cool things near the surface, then at higher altitudes losing that energy as Infrared radiation out to space causing it to cool and condense.
5. Its importance in the water transpiration cycle - constantly purifying and supplying clean water - keeping the rain coming to prevent earth turning into a dessert
6. The role trees and mycellium play in filtering runoff into streams from farming and related activity
7. Its contribution to the oxygen cycle - converting the oxygen we need for human life
8. Holding water - so that we don't get downstream flooding or raising sea levels
9. Stabilising topsoil - so that we do not get erosion particularly on mountain slopes (see NZ landcare report)
10. Supporting a rich diversity of life - capable of evolving to combat external threats like climate change
11. As a source of medicinal knowledge and remadies to enhance human life
12. As a complex inter-dependent place we as a species can learn from (biomimicry)
13. As a place of peace and recreation where we can relax and recharge ourselves
14. .......

Some research resources that support this:

DOC BOP Report - Ecosystem Services of Protected areas and Ecological Corridors within the Kaimai-Tauranga Catchments

2/12/ 2011: In the eye of the Storm - Columbia and Climate Change - a research report on the value of Rainforests by Peter Bunyan

14 /7/ 2011 Forests Absorb one third of global fossil fuel emissions

Loss of Ecosystem Services that Rainforests Provide - Rainforest Consevation Fund estimate worth 3.815 Trillium $ per year

New approaches to assess the impact of land use and forest mgmt - water related ecosystem services.
Leuven University , Belgium

What are rainforests worth - Forest Foresight report, Global Canopy Program 2008

TEV report on Rainforest Ecosystem Services Value (TEV) What are Rainforests worth? - Mandar Trivedi and others 2008 (note that does not include global cooling value except via CO2)

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) plus Report for Business - Executive Summary 2010
view Pavan Sukhdev TEEB Study Leader video on Greening the Economy, and video on Building a Better Future

Rainforests worth $1.1 trillion for carbon alone in "Coalition" nations
Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com - November 29, 2005

See what the Institute of Science in Society says about all this in "Why Gaia Needs Rainforests"

The Prince's Rainforest Site "Working to make the forests worth more alive than dead" connect on facebook

CSIRO Rainforest Ecosystem Services Research Project Atherton, Queensland Australia

Water Infrastructure for Sustainabile Development - World Bank

The value the world's ecosysyem services and natural capital - An international scientific report involving NZ researchers

RQ: A GLOBAL WARMING DILEMMA - BY CUTTING DOWN RAINFORESTS TO PLANT BIOFUEL AND OTHER CROPS, ARE WE DISMANTLING NATURE'S CLIMATE REGULATOR AND IS THAT CONTRIBUTING TO THE LARGELY UNEXPLAINED TEMPERATURE RISE CURRENT CLIMATE MODELS PREDICT?

RQ: BY CONCENTRATING ALMOST ENTIRELY ON CARBON LEVELS AS THE KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATOR (TARGET) THAT INFLUENCES CLIMATE , IS THE SUSTAINABILTY MOVEMENT and SCIENCE SENDING THE WRONG ECONOMIC SIGNALS TO THE WORLD?

To do our part for all our futures, our iwi, Ngati Whare is pioneering a big project to restore native forest on previously milled Whirinaki land that is being returned under treaty settlements.

VIDEO from IUCN that demonstrates how people in China, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya and more are rehabilitating destroyed ecosystems by planting indigenous trees that recpover deserts, bring back the streams and water, store carbon and give sustainable livelihoods.

 

Here are some more international sites that highlight the reliance we have on all ecosystem services:

TED TALK Dec 2011: What's the Price of Nature - Pavan Sukhdev overviews ecosystem services value including rainForests

Millenium Ecosystem Assessment – http://www.maweb.org/en/index.aspx . Assessment of status of world ecosystem services…A global initiative

World Resources Institute – www.wri.org   . Has many projects in the Ecosystems Services space

Earth trends –  http://earthtrends.wri.org  . Great environmental databases

Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance -- http://www.climate-standards.org/     . Assessment guidance for rainforests.

 

OTHER LEARNING RESOURCES:

Make the talking tree a friend find out what a tree feels and does

NIWA Educational information
Monitoring Rainforest Ecology using a Wireless Sensor System. Springbrook, South East Queensland, Australia
Rainbird Rainforest Teaching Curriculum grades 9-12 - Some great class resources here
NASA Rainforests at the Crossroad site that explain remote sensing by satellites with exercises that use that data.
Hope for the Rainforests - a science based, general introduction to the rain forests of the world and threats they face.

Climate Change - Resources for educators and teachers from the US Global Change Research Project

Cycles of the Earth and Atmosphere - a resource for teachers and schools form the LEARN site
Learning about water - a glossary of water terms and links to many other learning resources around the water cycle
Waterwatch Australia - resouces for schools and communities inerested in preserving their own water and place
The Encyclopedia of Earth - lots of resources for educatorsa nad more

Centre for Ecoliteracy- Resources that focus on Schooling for Sustainability
Enviroschools - NZ Programme Resources
SEED- Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development - Classroom and teaching resources
Energy Works Michigan - Free teaching resources on Energy

Powerup the game - interactive 3D action science strategy game by IBM

Climate Literacy and Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN) - great classroom resources

Complex Systems - Non Linearities, Feedbacks and Critical Thresholds within the Earth's Climate System

Details of our weatherstation Project
How we have configured the Weather Station software we use
Thanks to Werner Krenn and the team for developing and sharing the PC-Wetterstation software we use

The Tipu Ake Organic Leadership model that helps us thrive in complexity. Our School's gift to the world
The Kaitiakitanga Program and Network - Maori values far beyond just sustainability that we share.

 

REMINDING OURSELVES WHAT SYSTEMS THINKING IS ABOUT

A wonderful mindmap from a school in the Netherlands

Try also Tipu Ake Rugby/ Scrum Metaphors - own own version of Agile Project Leadership for collaborative learning projects

More help: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci - a review of a book by Michael Gelb, and also The Science of Leonardo by Frijof Capra

If you have suggestions, knowledge, questions, encouragement or feedback about this project, please email us

 

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CONVENTIONS, INTERNSHIPS AND WIN-WIN PARTNERSHIPS This research program is carried out at our Kura to support broad student learning, longer term skill development and appropriate economic outcomes for our students and community. It is a local school Board of Trustees led program that is "ring fenced" outside our school's standard Ministry of Education Funding streams.  It is project based learning and encourages “Systems thinking” that spans many NZ and related curriculum areas. A wide range of interested local and external parties have generously provided koha in the form of time, resources, information, publicity (and in some cases direct funding)  to become important contributors and win-win partners in this program. We invite more people or organisations who have specific expertise, resources or common interests that could be mutually levered, to talk with us about internship, sabbatical, or partnership opportunities. Sharing is one of the values passed on by our ancestors that our kura holds close.   That means that our learning is freely shared on the web with anyone else in the world who is interested in using it for educational and ongoing learning purposes.  People anywhere who get benefit from this program are invited to acknowledge it with a koha  (in any form) that helps us to accelerate it and share its learning.    Our kura and community objective is to have our place respected internationally as a place of rich learning based on traditional indigenous Maori values knowledge and research practices.   All intellectual property generated by this program is protected in perpetuity under the provisions of  The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous people and The Treaty of Waitangi (1840). Intellectual property is assigned to remain for all time at the place Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi. Guarded by all future children’s of this place. © www.tewhaiti-nui-a-toi.maori.nz Accessing or referring or in any way using the information published in this program (excluding of information that is belongs to other parties and offered as an associated research links) implies acknowledgement of this convention and thus forms a conditions for the use of it. Anyone referencing this program in any publication or communication must cite it as the Whirinaki Rainforest Ecosystem Services Research Program including a web link to www.whirinakirainforest.info/ecosystem_services_value    Te Kura Toitu o Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi, Private Bag 3013 Rotorua, Ph: 64 7 366 3221, Email: schooloffice@tuhoe.com

 

NOTICES AND OPPORTUNITIES:

Learn what Kaitiakitanga means to us

VIDEOCLIPS ON LINE (Index here)

Guided Tours - Local guides will share their treasure with you
Mountainbiking - ride the spectacular Whirinaki MTB track
Tramping in Whirinaki. - Experience our place
Camping at Mangamate Waterfall - upgraded for your next hols
Disabled or impaired - Local support and guides are available
Accommodation - to make your Whirinaki experience

WEMZ Project - The Whirinaki Ecological Management Zone
Our Right Royal Kiwi, Princess Beatrice adopted by Prince Andrew
Other species recovery projects - Kiwi, Weka and Kaka

Powhiri - our formal welcome to visitors (see marae visits)
What we and our school are up to download videoclips

David Bellamy "Moa's Ark Revisited" Whirinaki 25 report, Sept 09 Dialoque in our rainforest with Hunter Lovins - US environmentalist

Information - menus at the top of every page access our local services

This site is under constant development thanks to assistance from teams at AUT.  An * in a menu is used to show a function that is not yet available. We are working to establish a multimedia organisation in our community to carry out ongoing development. (Our students at Te Kura Toitu o Te Whaiti Nui-a-Toi were awarded third place in the 2003 NZ school web challenge).  Feedback please to temporary webmaster.