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What happens when a little dog finds a giant pile of leaves to play in? Hilarity, of course.
via Geekosystem
There is an entire ecosystem in a previously-overlooked layer of a rainforest. Between the treetops and the forest floor, falling leaves are caught in a matrix of almost-inivisible filaments of the fungus Marasmius. Jake Snaddon from the University of Oxford has been studying this in-between layer of leaves and fungus.
When Snaddon shifted his focus to these hanging leaves, he soon realised their importance. In every hectare (the size of a rugby pitch, or London’s Trafalgar Square), the fungi hold around 260 kilograms of leaves. They hold 2-3 times more than other epiphytes can, and they’re more evenly dispersed.
These litter-traps are suspended worlds. Snaddon counted around 340 different species of insects and other arthropods among the dead leaves. If he removed the fungi, the number of species in the lower canopy fell by 57 percent, and the total number of individuals fell by 70 percent. That’s a huge figure, especially when you consider that around 60 percent of the canopy’s arthropods live in its lowest parts. Clearly, our knowledge of the rainforest was missing a crucial layer.
Next Snaddon will look at the relationships between the different species of life in the rainforest mezzanine. Link
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Living in Southern California, I regrettably miss most of the traditional signs of changing seasons. For that reason, I’m always particularly struck by the beauty of forests of deciduous trees changing colors and shedding their leaves. If you’re also a huge fan of these sights, be sure to head over to BuzzFeed where you can enjoy 21 of these stunning images.
Leaf carving involves cutting away at a leaf until it reveals an image. This is a craft practiced by Nature’s Art, a studio in Hengshui, China. At the link, you can view several other examples as well as instructions on how to make your own.
Link via Make | Photo: Nature’s Art
Illustrator Christoph Niemann looks at the identification of leaves in a whole new way. See a collection of leaves from trees you never knew existed, like the Fast Forwood and the Alder Ego. Link -via Swiss Miss
Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932), a German artist and professor, captured these ‘art forms in nature’ and used them to instruct his students.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.
