Gold mine of information! Stephen even explains how they obtained these figures!
My notes below:
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Past, Present and Future of Redwoods: A Redwood Ecology and Climate Symposium by Stephen Sillett – Save the Redwoods League
In the video’s cover image, “DTB” is diameter at top of buttress, and “DBH” is probably diameter at base height.
Ring width declines as trees get older, while rate of wood production increases.
“A tree’s rate of wood production continues to increase with size (e.g., leaf area) until near death.”
GOOD NEWS ON AGING:
“In this complete data set of all of our trees, only two trees have significant negative trends of growth in the last 100 years.” One is in the deepest of shade, and the other is in a swamp.
“The Redwoods, taken as a whole, in the old-growth forests of California, are growing faster now than they did in the past.” Same is true of Sequoias.
“Does a tree’s responsiveness to a changing climate diminish with age? No, regardless of age, tree growth responds to changes in the environment.”
How big are these trees they measured? [@19:40, apparently, these two are slightly less than the two record trees. Stephan says: “they’re actually number two of each, but they’re darn close to being the biggest.”]
WEIGHT – Redwood: 425 tons | Sequoia: 550 tons
VOLUME – Redwood: 1,103 cubic meters | Sequoia: 1512 cubic meters
LEAVES – Redwood: 1.12 billion | Sequoia: 1.94 billion
HEIGHT – Redwood: 115.72 m/380 feet | Sequoia: 96.29 m/316 feet
AGE – Sequoia: 3240 years (>1500 rare) | Redwood: 2500 years (>2500 rare)
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Stephen Sillett FINAL
