WEBVTT - How Can Gingko Leaves Help Track Climate Change?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren Vogel Bomb here. You might have a gingko tree

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<v Speaker 1>in your neighborhood. It has whispy, fan shaped leaves that

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<v Speaker 1>turn a beautiful burnished yellow in the fall, and possibly

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<v Speaker 1>drops rotten smelling fruit. It looks different from other trees

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<v Speaker 1>you might see on your street, mostly because when you

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<v Speaker 1>look at a ginko tree, you're looking at the product

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<v Speaker 1>of another time. Gingko baloba is the oldest tree on Earth.

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<v Speaker 1>It's outlived all its relatives and has seen the dinosaurs

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<v Speaker 1>rise and fall. Any individual gingko tree may have seen

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<v Speaker 1>a lot. The oldest known gingo specimen stands in the

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<v Speaker 1>Zogan Mountains of China and has one thousand, four hundred

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<v Speaker 1>years old. Ginko trees have remained pretty much unchanged for

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<v Speaker 1>the past two hundred and seventy million years, have survived

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<v Speaker 1>three mass extinctions, and might be a key to helping

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<v Speaker 1>us understand something about how our current climate shifts will

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<v Speaker 1>affect organisms in the future. A group of researchers at

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<v Speaker 1>the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Maryland, are studying

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<v Speaker 1>a grove of fifteen ginko trees each housed in a

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<v Speaker 1>plastic greenhouse tent and hooked up to a tank of

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<v Speaker 1>carbon dioxide that delivers different amounts of the gas to

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<v Speaker 1>each tree, some up to two and a half times

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<v Speaker 1>the carbon dioxide concentration of modern Earth's air. In this experiment,

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<v Speaker 1>called fossil atmospheres, the scientists are trying to reconstruct how

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<v Speaker 1>the atmosphere of Earth has changed over the past couple

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<v Speaker 1>of geologic eras, through the ice ages and periods when

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<v Speaker 1>there was no ice at all in the poles, and

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<v Speaker 1>how it's likely to change in the future. The Earth's

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<v Speaker 1>atmosphere is made up of a variety of different gases,

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<v Speaker 1>including carbon dioxide, the concentrations of which have a huge

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<v Speaker 1>impact on the planet's climate. Scientists can get a pretty

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<v Speaker 1>good idea of what past climates were like by looking

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<v Speaker 1>at fossil plants, thanks to a little structure on the

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<v Speaker 1>surface of their leaves called stamata. These are tiny holes

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<v Speaker 1>that let carbon dioxide into the leaf and water and

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<v Speaker 1>oxygen out. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the air

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<v Speaker 1>determines how many somata are on the surface of the leaf.

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<v Speaker 1>Using fossils of ginkos from different places and time periods

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<v Speaker 1>can help the researchers put together a story of what

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<v Speaker 1>Earth's climate has been up to for the past few

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<v Speaker 1>hundred million years. The researchers are doing all kinds of

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<v Speaker 1>experiments with their tented fossil atmospheres, but they also want

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<v Speaker 1>your help. You can assist in this project by volunteering

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<v Speaker 1>to help count stamata on fossil gingko leaves in order

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<v Speaker 1>to calculate the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere

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<v Speaker 1>during specific periods in the deep Deep past. You can

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<v Speaker 1>also send in ginko leaves from wherever you live, because

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<v Speaker 1>although ginkos are native to China, they're popular in yards, gardens,

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<v Speaker 1>and along streets worldwide. By receiving specimens from citizen scientists

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<v Speaker 1>all over the globe, the researchers will be able to

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<v Speaker 1>get a better sense of how various features of the

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<v Speaker 1>trees differed depending on whether they're planted in say, Singapore

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<v Speaker 1>or Colorado, which will in turn help them to better

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<v Speaker 1>understand how ginko grow differently depending on the climate in

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<v Speaker 1>which they developed now or two million years ago. Today's

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<v Speaker 1>episode was written by Jesselyn Shields and produced by Tyler Clay.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radios How

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works. For more on this and lots of other

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