As warming conditions kill off families of trees, restoration best practices could include replanting and supplementing with fungi-rich soil.Įxperiments are conducted in a greenhouse, at field sites and a research garden northwest of Flagstaff. Gehring believes understanding the processes and contributions of fungi could have consequences for many species. There is an interchange after fungi set up residence among roots: fungus gives the tree nutrients and water from the soil and the tree takes sugar from photosynthesis and shares it with the fungi. The species of fungi that are so important during drought are new to science, Gehring said. When the beneficial fungus is included in the soil, the community of fungi associated with drought tolerant trees allowed their seedlings to grow much larger in drought conditions.įungi often manifest above ground as mushrooms, but in northern Arizona’s pinyon habitat, the microorganisms are primarily below ground. Offspring from the two groups, when planted in a greenhouse without fungi, grow to the same size. The group of drought-tolerant trees a different community of beneficial fungi than the trees that died during drought. The answers to this mystery were underground. “That group of trees had 60 percent mortality and the group susceptible to insects had only 20 percent mortality,” Gehring said.
While many tree species become vulnerable to insects during drought conditions, Gehring’s team discovered a twist: the pinyons that were insect-resistant were not surviving the drought. “Every tissue of a plant that you look at has fungi inside of it and we are trying to figure out what they do and if they are going to be important for allowing plants to survive climate change.”Īlong with a team of researchers, Gehring is studying pinyon pine trees and their susceptibility to severe drought conditions. It just tends to be fungi instead of bacteria,” Gehring said. “Just like the human microbiome, plants have a micro biome. There may just be better ways to earn merit. Today he spends 5,000-7,000 yuan, or about 5% of his annual salary. He says he first practised fang sheng as a student, releasing two turtles that cost him 98 yuan, his food budget for three weeks. Yet still he is prepared to spend oodles on fang sheng, through whose associations he can disseminate Buddhist information and reach new followers. Wang Tianbao, a 26-year-old programmer and evangelical Buddhist, admits that paying for animals that have only recently been released is “a waste of money”. Animals that do not survive the trauma are often sold as food. To add to the grimness, many animals, once released, are hoovered up and sold again to fresh devotees. It feeds on the eggs of the native Japanese rice fish, causing the latter to disappear completely in some areas.
Zhou Zhuocheng, chairman of China’s main body on aquatic ecology, cites the case of the mosquito fish from North America, a popular fish for fang sheng. Nor does using reared or exotic species help.
Many animals-perhaps half of all the birds-die during capture or transit from stress, disease or mishandling. Figures are hard to come by, but one paper estimated that in Hong Kong two markets sold over 630,000 birds a year, most destined for fang sheng. The greatest price, however, is paid by the animals themselves and the ecosystems from which they come and into which they go.Ī vast and mainly illegal wildlife trade caters to the demand for animals. Officials estimate around 200m fish, snakes, turtles, birds and even ants are released each year-though no one really has a clue.įang sheng associations can rake in around 1m yuan ($157,000) in annual donations. Today fang sheng is making a comeback, especially among the young and well-off. The practice is ancient, though along with everything else, it was condemned as so much superstition under Mao Zedong.
The point is to demonstrate compassion and earn merit. This is fang sheng, or “animal release”, an East Asian Buddhist ritual in which captive creatures are freed. Over three hours some 2,000 loach are tipped into the murky waters to the sound of chants. EVERY Saturday morning hundreds of devotees gather by Shanghai’s Huangpu river to liberate fish.
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