On a blank sheet of paper

1. On a blank sheet of paper • Draw or describe what you think of when you hear the words “Forest Fire”

2. As we move away from water… • As conditions become drier – ecosystems become dependent on another abiotic factor • Fire • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yZZJoMLzYo

3. Pine reproduction and fire • Refer to pine cone on the lab bench. It has been under the heat lamp and begun to open. • Some pines need the extreme heat of a fire in order to open their cones. • The repeated fires clear out underbrush and release nutrients back into the soil. • The cleared out land makes for a great seed bed.

4. Conifers • "Lignin, the stuff that prevents all trees from adopting the weeping habit, is a polymer made up of units that are closely related to vanillin. When made into paper and stored for years, it breaks down and smells good. Which is how divine providence has arranged for secondhand bookstores to smell like good quality vanilla absolute, subliminally stoking a hunger for knowledge in all of us." • - From Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez's Perfumes: the guide.

5. Lignin • This is one of the most important developments in plant evolution. Without lignin, we don’t have paper, many of our houses, furniture or other wood products we use.

6. Carbon storage • Lignin is responsible for about 30% of the dry mass of wood. • It is also holds about 30% of the non fossil organic carbon on our planet • So where does all this mass come from?