Ohia Ash shown to Improve Ohia Health

[TomK]

"Ultraviolet light exists within the spectrum of light between 10 and 400 nm. The germicidal range of UV is within the 100-280nm
wavelengths, known as UV-C, with the peak wavelength for germicidal activity being 265 nm."

The Earth's atmosphere is opaque to UV light below approximately 290 nm.

[ohiagrrl]

K Thanks TomK,

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/impacts/space-w...ts-climate

"The most important impact the Sun has on Earth is from the brightness or irradiance of the Sun itself. The Sun produces energy in the form of photons of light. The variability of the Sun's output is wavelength dependent; different wavelengths have higher variability than others. Most of the energy from the Sun is emitted in the visible wavelengths (approximately 400 – 800 nanometers (nm)). The output from the sun in these wavelengths is nearly constant and changes by only one part in a thousand (0.1%) over the course of the 11-year solar cycle."

I'll skip Wikipedia next time. Please feel free to explain if wavelength size effects germicidal properties. The stars are your thing.

[TomK]

The sun and other stars generate electromagnetic radiation at all wavelengths. The relative strength of the wavelengths depends on the star's blackbody temperature.

However, Earth has an atmosphere which prevents many wavelengths of EM radiation reaching the ground, including UV light below 290 nm.

You wrote:

"Sunlight is below 400nm on the UV spectrum but all that is needed to be germicidal is 100-280nm. (Thanks Wikipedia!) Sawdust will also aerate in dry weather which is just good composting. Some of you guys are getting too hung up on walking through bug poo as a reason not to cut wood. Cut on a sunny day over a tarp if you're really worried. Doing nothing is not a solution."

I think you now need to explain how light from the sun that can't get through the atmosphere to the ground helps your argument.

[ohiagrrl]

Right that was a fact check error. I thought I corrected that with NOAA Space Weather quote up above. Copy/ paste below. I defer all to you in this arena, so if this data is still incorrect please let me know, Tom-san. Thanks for making sure I got it right and Thank You for keeping it technical.

Most of the energy from the Sun is emitted in the visible wavelengths (approximately 400 – 800 nanometers (nm)). The output from the sun in these wavelengths is nearly constant and changes by only one part in a thousand (0.1%) over the course of the 11-year solar cycle."

At 400 to 800nm UV sunlight should be passing through the ozone layer.

I thought I read somewhere a few years back that the sun was in a warming trend this 11 year cycle.

Super interesting about ozone opaqueness, I suppose ozone health would play into that. My limited understanding is that Carbon emissions and resultant high concentrations of nitrogen NOX could impact the level of opacity?

[ohiagrrl]

A relevant article about environmental impacts of fire suppression of cultural practices:

"Those trees that have grown up since fire suppression are like straws sucking up the groundwater," Lake said.

Read more about anthropogenic fire systems at: https://phys.org/news/2014-07-ecology-ca...s.html#jCp

"They were aware of the succession, so they staggered burns by 5 to 10 years to create mosaics of forest in different stages, which added a lot of diversity for a short proximity area of the same forest type," Lake said. "Complex tribal knowledge of that pattern across the landscape gave them access to different seral stages of soil and vegetation when tribes made their seasonal rounds."

In oak woodlands, burning killed mold and pests like the filbert weevil and filbert moth harbored by the duff and litter on the ground. People strategically burned in the fall, after the first rain, to hit a vulnerable time in the life cycle of the pests, and maximize the next acorn crop. Lake thinks that understanding tribal use of these forest environments has context for and relevance to contemporary management and restoration of endangered ecosystems and tribal cultures.

[TomK]

Ohiagrrl - maybe this plot will make things a little clearer:

https://goo.gl/Kz40Xn

It plots data from the UV all the way through the near-infrared and shows:

1) the calculated blackbody temperature distribution of the sun ("spectral energy distribution", SED, if you want to look it up);

2) the actual measured SED as seen at the top of the atmosphere;

3) the amount of radiation received at the Earth's surface after it passes through the atmosphere at various wavelengths. It also shows the molecules that absorb particular wavelengths of light.

You'll see that although the sun emits some UVC radiation (the germicidal type), it doesn't get through the atmosphere (probably a good thing, I doubt we'd be here if it did). UVA and UVB radiation do get through, however, the types that give you sunburn.

[ohiagrrl]

Hi TomK, I'm the first to admit I'm on a fishing expedition for big game fish using a string on a stick, however , I did locate an article from Cornell Chronicle titled
"UVB Light Zaps Cucumber Disease", editted it into initial posting (noted the edit) but it would not open through this browser. Here is a quote from that article providing some evidence of UVB fungicidal qualities:

"UV-B radiation is found in sunlight and damages the DNA and proteins in living cells in plants and fungi. The transparent powdery mildew fungus, with no pigment to block UV light, is especially vulnerable, Gadoury said.

The researchers infected cucumber plants with powdery mildew and applied UV-B for short spurts of five, 10 and 15 minutes. They found that UV-B exposure reduced cucumber powdery mildew infection from about 90 percent of leaf area to about 5 percent, and also reduced the formation of spores."

Since the UVB is in the spectrum of 290nm to 320nm and you told me ozone opacity is relevant at 290nm and lower, I thought I'd cleared myself from looking like too much of a fool. But that's a willing sacrifice. Ash efficacy in regards to treating ROD has me willing to scrap it out, even if clumsily. Any help greatly appreciated. Much of the extraterrestrial is completely above my head unless I can put it in context of something I do understand. This is why your reference to ozone opacity helped me to better understand the issue of UV wavelengths and how they effect terrestrial systems. Now that pushes the issue of "systemic" even further out, does it not?

[TomK]

Ohiagrrl - thank for your post. All I was doing was pointing out the wavelengths of light you posted earlier regarding germicidal effects couldn't come from sunlight. I'm no expert in biology, so the effects of UV light with wavelengths longer than 290 nm on biological organisms is not something I feel comfortable commenting on. There are others with much more expertise in that area than I.

[ohiagrrl]

TK....Truly helpful. Any mycologists out there willing to comment? The one's informing public policy seem unfamiliar with systems as they apply to residents and how to deal with dead trees other than do nothing. Human cooperation may be the only chance these forests stand of surviving this blight.

New field note: About a month ago I started spreading ash around the bases of more dead looking, standing Ohia (most branches gone). About 1 in 10 are showing little bursts of new growth, so far, (not above the mid trunk point.) Am thinking I will fertilize all dead trees with ash on the off chance ANY uptake still exists to kill remaining pathogen or parasite inside wood. If nothing else it should purify the surrounding area of CF and deter beetles. My boyfriend corrected me about the first dead looking tree that showed signs of regenesis, (new branch shot out of the side of a dead looking 30' trunk and is about 6 months old and as many feet long!) I thought this Ohia had been dead for 2 years, he said it was more like 6 years. It isn't pretty but it makes for a lot less work than removal.

Here's an article that postulates why reforesting may be difficult under acidification conditions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12806008

Residents are excited to have any opportunity to save trees that currently don't stand much of a chance. It would be too bad if U of H, Hilo missed the opportunity to be first to start an Ash Purification Pilot Program for Forestry and Soils Health here on the Big Island when the ideas germinated right here in these rain forests. The Ohia are calling to you. For them, I put my belligerence aside and continue to share with you all. There are many arms of erudition and land cultivation within this project. It was a gift from the aina. It is asking us all to evolve now, stop seeing ourselves as separate. Our life cycles are intertwined.

[Jimbo2017]

Isn't it illegal to open burn to create ash? I don't think UH people can recommend an illegal practice.

Also, if you want to do scientific investigation, why not try just Phosphorous heavy fertilizer on some trees, and ash on others? Test it like a scientist would (and add a control

Mauka Hilo-side