Posted on 08/13/2012 1:16:41 PM PDT by lbryce
Three years ago, a researcher collecting tree core samples in Connecticut was startled to see one of the trees begin to hiss and spit. Even more surprising, he found that the leaking gas could be set on fire.
It’s been known since around the 1970’s that a relatively rare bacterial infection in trees responsible for the damaging rot known as wet wood can cause trees to emit methane, a greenhouse gas with 20 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide. Trees in wetland soils can also act as straws, sipping methane from soggy, oxygen-poor soil.
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies A flame fueled by methane shoots out of an oak tree being cored in Yale Myers Forest in Connecticut. But scientists from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies believe that trees in upland forests infected with an almost ubiquitous fungus may also be a significant source of the potent greenhouse gas. Their findings appeared this week in Geophysical Review Letters.
The researchers found average concentrations of 15,000 parts per million inside trees in the Yale Myers forest in northeastern Connecticut, which is managed by the university’s forestry school. Ambient air concentrations of methane are usually less than two parts per million.
All that methane comes from microorganisms known as methanogens — no strangers to the guts of cows — which thrive in the oxygen-depleted environment created by fungal decay in the trees and release methane as a byproduct of their metabolism.
This methane translates to a warming potential equivalent to about 18 percent of the carbon being sequestered by these forests.
Kristofer Covey, a doctoral candidate at Yale and the lead author on the paper, emphasized that the research does not suggest in any way that such forests are an environmental negative.
(Excerpt) Read more at green.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Somewhere, Beavis just got wood.
...researchers found average concentrations of 15,000 parts per million inside trees
The Lower Flammability Limit of methane is 4.5 to 5.0 percent by volume in air. That's 45,000 to 50,000 ppmv. I guess if 15,000 ppm was average, they could have found higher concentrations. OK, passes the smell test.
Which brings up an interesting question. Does the chemical make-up that comprise the olfactory molecules travel in space and detectable by the olfactory nerves in the nostrils? Probably not, but if they do, no one may actually hear you fart in space but especially if it is only the two of you, they’ll know you transported unauthorized contraband methane gas and then be subject to the class-3 felony punishment in which importing methane gas is strictly enforced.
But, if NASA had any foresight, looking "out of the box" for safety systems innovations, say, in the event of a spacesuit jet-nozzle failure/loss of fuel and subsequent inability for the astronaut to navigate in space essentially stranding him without the ability to move, NASA would have a very "elegant" back-up rescue system with nozzles built into the spacesuit directly behind the anal fart-gas sphincter which would allow a stranded astronaut some modicum of movement, control, navigation and with only a few grams of beans in a pre-space walk meal, or even have the astronaut with access to dried bean paste within the space suit as Apollo astronauts had for their own energy and nourishment, it might some day save a life. Don't laugh. I see the headline now. March 26, 2098; "Stranded Astronaut Farts Himself to Safety."
First, I'm sure that 'sign' was photoshopped.
Second, the WHY or WHAT would happen seem obvious. I've never been in a Space Suit, so maybe it's not really obvious. Makes one wonder what would happen if one were to suddenly overpressurize their suit.
Perhaps this clip will help answer some questions.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1600734/rocket_man_farting_in_space/
Very entertaining. Thank you very much for taking the time to enlighten me on this subject. The thing is I have no special interest or fetish regarding flatulence. Nevertheless, hardcore science abounds if you know where to look. or where to put your senses.
That’s a good one. Thanks.
And, I thought trees were our friends.
Trees are our friends; but they won’t pick you up at the airport.
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