Dear all,
Although these plants are having so many disadvantages:
1. Adverse environmental impacts due to competition for water with other species (also called water pumps)
2. Increases the incidence of allelopathy.
3. Contain volatile compounds that fuel hot fires
but still the plantation of this plant is very high. Why, Reasons?
Hi Javed Iqbal ,
can you share with us the papers in which the adverse effects that you mentioned were investigated? And also statistics on the increase in plantation area worldwide.
Kind regards, Rob.
Found a previous discussion in RG on this topic. Might be useful?
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Eucalyptus_plantations-how_good_or_bad
Robert Thomas Bachmann,
Please have a look on these links. There are so many reports available.
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ijfr/2013/463030/
http://www.fao.org/3/ac777e/ac777e0a.htm
Dear Andrew Paul McKenzie Pegman,
How they are eco-friendly in Australia if they are not good in other parts of the world. Reason?
Dear Javed Iqbal
based on the paper you shared (Article Eucalyptus beyond Its Native Range: Environmental Issues in ...
) here are some interesting statements I extracted (mainly relevant to USA):1. The sclerophyllous leaves of eucalypts allow them to withstand very dry conditions and may also be an adaptation to low nutrient conditions.
2. the question may not be “Should we plant Eucalyptus?”, but instead “How should we manage Eucalyptus plantations?”
3. The potential productivity of Eucalyptus under short rotation for biomass is significantly greater than the widely cultured Pinus species.
4. Overall, these papers indicated a limited potential for invasiveness of most Eucalyptus species under consideration for planting in frost-prone areas outside of Peninsular Florida. However, the risk of invasiveness associated with Eucalyptus may increase as the scale of culture and propagule pressure increases in the southern USA.
5. Modeling suggests that fire behavior at the stand level differs little from current conditions and points to the importance of avoiding the development of a shrub layer. Stands managed on short rotation (less than 10 years) will likely be harvested before bark shedding presents a significant spotting problem.
6. Eucalyptus has potentially higher water use and water use efficiency compared to pasture, pine plantations, and native forests but water use is much lower in Eucalyptus plantings than in irrigated crops.
Considering Barkat Ali his contributions plus the paper you shared it is not easy to see your grave concerns.
Calling for
Antonio Lambe ,
Manmohan J. Dobriyal
Krishnan Umachandran
Mohammed Kamal Hossain
Jose Kallarackal
Tamer YA Fahmy
to briefly share your experience and knowledge on issues with Eucalyptus cultivation outside its native place (refer to Javed Iqbal question on top), please.
Hi Javed Iqbal l , there is plenty of literature highlighting negative impacts (biodiversity, water, wildfires, invasion). Of course impacts are context-dependent (management, landscape, etc.) and we can cherry pick whatever we like. In Portugal, plantations of E. globulus expanded vertiginously in a few decades and now cover c. 9% of the country, mostly concentrated in a few regions. There were major landscape transformations and certainly major environmental impacts in different domains. Additionally, many eucalypt plantations are now literally or practically abandoned. But still you can find a recent manifest endorsing eucalypt plantations, sponsored by the eucalypt industry and signed by a lot of public figures, including some academics.
1. Adverse environmental impacts due to competition for water with other species (also called water pumps)
a. Pumps draw water from deeper depths or just push large volumes or push water very high after discharge. Emotional reaction and scientific reaction are different things.
b. What is water consumption per MT wood produced or biomass produced or goods produced. So if it is efficient water user then should not be a problem. And that is why probably world wide this is widely grown species for various wood products
c. How about paddy, sugarcane, Banana - ever studied that - in terms of per Unit of useful products produced or biomass produced.
2. Increases the incidence of allelopathy.
How does it compare with other tree species. Every tree has some positive chemicals and negative chemicals (w.r.t. native vegetation). Same chemicals may be termed good at another location. Do you know many Eucalyptus uptake Arsenic very well and clean up. Overall a good amount of biodiversity is seen in Euca plantations, may be not like natural forests, but still very good.
My personal view is that trees are God's creation (let alone GMs for the time being).
How could it be good or bad in general. It is humanity which classifies. A knife can be used to murder or cut vegetables (very common saying).
3. Contain volatile compounds that fuel hot fires
a. Not all Euca, but many
b. Many other species also have this property well defined. Pines for example.
c. Fires are usually with other human interventions like smoking or purposeful fire at some place which spreads. EUca is not take the blame.
d. The commercial plantations are usually well managed. The bad managed ones suffer. Where is the species blame for that. ??
At the same time the advantages and benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Every plan is created by nature. Fundamentally it cannot be bad. Its usage depends on human needs. Rice cultivation also needs max amount of water... But still is very widely cultivated because of human staple needs. On other hand take examples of Sugarcane, Tobacco - useless crops otherwise but cultivated on massive scale.. Any justifications for such large scale cultivation...!!!!??
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