What You Never Knew About Trees | SciShow Compilation

TL;DR

Trees matter because they make oxygen, cool urban environments with shade, and hold soil together to prevent erosion. This SciShow compilation explains how prehistoric farmers saved avocados after their megafauna partners vanished and introduces #TeamTrees, the campaign by MrBeast and Mark Rober to plant 20 million trees by the end of 2019. Read on for the surprising evolutionary story behind avocado trees and their enormous seeds.

Transcript

Hey everybody, got a special video for you today. I, you may not know this, love trees they're tall and they're skinny just like me and they do so much for us from making oxygen so we can breathe to cooling urban environments with their shade the literally holding the ground together to prevent erosion so when we here at scishow heard that Mr Beast... Read More

Key Insights

• 👻 Avocado trees owe their survival to early farmers who cultivated them in Mesoamerica.
• 💨 Genetically modifying trees like American chestnuts could be a way to restore populations affected by diseases.
• 🧑‍🏭 The shapes of trees in the dancing forest and crooked forest remain a mystery and might be due to natural factors or human manipulation.
• 🌲 Some trees, like the Bristlecone pine and Pando, can live for thousands of years and offer valuable insights into the past and the choices we make for the future.
• 🌲 Efforts like #TeamTrees are crucial for planting trees and ensuring a sustainable future for the planet.
• 🌲 Trees not only provide oxygen and shade but also contribute to the ecosystem and help prevent erosion.
• 🌲 Protecting and planting trees is an important step towards combating climate change and preserving biodiversity.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why are trees important?

Trees make oxygen that people breathe, cool urban environments with their shade, and hold the ground together to prevent erosion. These benefits motivated SciShow to support #TeamTrees.

Q: What was the goal of #TeamTrees?

MrBeast and Mark Rober assembled #TeamTrees to help plant 20 million trees by the end of 2019. The campaign’s deadline was December 31st.

Q: How did donations to #TeamTrees support tree planting?

For every dollar donated at teamtrees.org, the Arbor Day Foundation would plant a tree. SciShow created this compilation of favorite tree episodes to inspire viewers to donate.

Q: Why did avocados nearly go extinct?

Avocados evolved alongside megafauna whose large digestive systems dispersed their huge seeds. After those animals went extinct, fallen avocado seeds mostly became food for mold, and the trees stopped thriving.

Q: How did prehistoric farmers save avocados?

New human arrivals enjoyed avocado flesh and had the tools and knowledge needed to grow the plants. By cultivating avocado trees in Mesoamerica, farmers helped preserve a fruit that had lost its original seed-dispersing partners.

Q: Why do avocados have such large seeds?

Avocados evolved alongside giant animals that swallowed the fruit and later dispersed its indigestible seed. A bigger seed also stored more nutrients for a young tree, helping it survive beneath dense tropical forest canopies where older trees blocked much of the light.

Q: How are avocados nutritionally different from many other fruits?

Compared with fruits such as apples and oranges, avocados have much less sugar but more protein and fat. Their fat contributes to their creamy texture, and they also contain high levels of potassium, folate, and vitamins C, E, and K.

Q: How did megafauna spread avocado seeds?

Giant sloths and enormous armadillos ate avocados, digesting the tough skin and high-energy pulp. The bitter, toxin-containing seed passed through them undamaged and was deposited elsewhere with fertilizer, helping avocado trees spread through Mesoamerican forests.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Avocado trees almost went extinct when their evolutionary partners, megafauna, became extinct thousands of years ago. Luckily, early farmers in Mesoamerica cultivated them, leading to their survival.

• The American chestnut trees faced near-extinction due to a fungus brought from Asia. Scientists are now trying to bring back the species by genetically modifying them.

• The dancing forest in Kaliningrad and the crooked forest in Poland are examples of trees with unusual shapes, which remain a mystery. Humans may have manipulated the trees, but natural factors like winds and pressure from weight could also be responsible.