We studied the effects of extreme heat on urban trees in Western Sydney during Australia’s record-breaking summer of 2019-20.
It can be hard to predict how individual trees will respond to heat stress.
As part of the latest research, we grew seedlings in a glasshouse to test how access to water affected heat tolerance.
In urban trees, leaves reached lethal temperatures of 49-50℃ for species with the lowest rates of water loss.
When species with low rates of water loss had access to water, there was little heat damage or scorched leaves.
Obviously we need to replace all the trees with giant cacti
I am a genius :D
But they don’t share their water with us in the form of transpiration. They hog it.
But, some avenues of exotic cactus would be very cool.
