cd3k

The ocean fertilizes forests, and forests return the favor. Salmon runs along rivers in Alaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific Northwest of the United States bring a quarter of the nitrogen found in trees up to hundreds of meters from the streamside. Bears, eagles, wolves, and dozens of other species haul salmon carcasses into the woods, which then decompose into the soil. This marine nitrogen can be traced by scientists as it has a heavier isotope signature than anything made on land. Trees beside salmon rivers can grow up to three times faster than ones without. Forests send nutrients back downstream as well. Forest soil is rich in iron, which is one of the key nutrients ocean ecosystems are starved of. Phytoplankton, the microscopic plants that underpin every marine food chain, can’t grow without it. Decaying leaves and wood leach humic acids full of iron that rain carries into streams, then rivers, and eventually into ocean waters that circulate this vital nutrient into the deep. Modern science is refining this macro-scale mutual support between ecosystems, but many cultures have already observed this phenomenon. Japanese fishing villages made a point to replant forested hillsides near their fishing grounds, and called them uotsuki-rin – fish-breeding forests. Conservation and restoration of these forest landscapes not only benefit the climate, the wildlife, and the communities that live among them, but also neighboring ocean ecosystems as well. Life in the biosphere is more interconnected than you can imagine. #nature #forests #conservation #restoration