We took pictures on campus of the trees by the soccer field. There are lots of trees to look at and research around there. Three of those trees that I will be looking at in the Gigapan pictures are Sugar Maple, Sycamore, and Black Cherry. We will be looking at how these trees change color over the next couple of weeks through the Gigapans, hypothesis and the chemistry of the trees.
Not all trees change color, like Evergreens. Evergreens have needles and the needles don’t take as much energy to keep up as leaves do. But the ones that do change color go through Leaf Senecence. This is where the leaves are actively killed by the trees. The trees break down the compounds in the leaves and then the nutrients are reabsorbed into the tree. During this process the leaves change color. These trees that kill their leaves and grow new ones after hibernating are called Deciduous trees. They can hibernate during not only the winter when it is really cold, but also in the Summer when it is really hot. It depends on the area the tree lives in.
People wonder about why they start to change in the fall and some say that it is because red serves as a warning system to insects at this time. Yet insects don’t see red well.
I think that the Sugar Maple trees will change quicker that the other 2 because of the amount of energy needed for the making of the maple sap would be needed earlier than energy for the up keep of the other trees.
