Those Brilliant Fall Outfits May Be Saving Trees - The Diigo Meta page

• 01 Sep 08
  

  trees pigment autumn leaves

  • Many plant physiologists see the protection provided by pigments as so important that there is not much left over for Dr. Hamilton's leaf-signal hypothesis to explain. "You may have a few instances where insects have some sort of relationship to color changes," Dr. Hoch said, "but it's almost certainly not a broad-based explanation. It doesn't hold any water."

  • Dr. Wilkinson speculates that some of the recent evidence in favor of Dr. Hamilton's signal hypothesis actually supports the sunscreen hypothesis. The link Dr. Hagen found between bright fall leaves and a lack of damage in spring may not be a result of trees' warning insects. Instead, the bright leaves might belong to trees that were doing a good job of protecting their leaves as they prepared for winter.

Would you like to comment?

Join Diigo for a free account, or sign in if you are already a member.