how does scientists study the role of trees in ecosystems?
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First, I am not a scientist but a scientfic researcher. It's important to know what animals eat the seeds or fruits of flowering trees to deduce it's role in a given ecosystem. It's relationship to the other living organisms in it's environment is very important. It's also imortant to know what animals very existence hinges on the trees continued existence in the ecosytem. In other words, as trees get chopped down and various animal species that depend on the trees start to die, that is then a useful barometer of the trees role in the ecosystem.
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the study of the areas between fresh water and salt water and the ecosystems in between.
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Talks to troubled trees i guess! I dunno, maybe try title on ya search engine and c what that tells you.  \n                         Cheers.
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The question is not clear. Are you refering to ecological sub-systems with the rainforest?\nRainforests are the most complex of ecosystems, both in terms of structural complexity (several vertical layers, etc.) and in terms of interelationships and functions. \nSome of the sub-systems of the rainforest (although there is no clear separation between them) are the canopy, the underbrush, and the leaf litter levels. All of those are disturbed (destroyed, more likely) by deforestation. All the arboreal habitats just disappear, to be replaced (more or less slowly) by secondary-growth forest, which is much thicker and comprises different species (mostly opportunist species that grow rapidly once a clearing opens); and the leaf litter system (comprising most of the detritivore food web) is also destroyed because the ground level is exposed to direct sunlight and evaporation, as well as the erosive effects of rain.
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Often.  They are, after all, going to drop seeds in one form or another.  And the conditions are good there for that tree, so others will live there also.\n\nAnd the tree serves as a focal point for so many other things.  Squirrels and birds will bring food, (seeds) to the vicinity.\n\nWind tends to swirl around a tree, dropping airborne seeds in the area.  \n\nSome trees can promulgate through runners, creating off spring near by.
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Animals and plants develope unique features that help them to adapt to their enviroment.
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Major Components of Ecosystems:\n\nEcosystems are composed of a variety of abiotic and biotic components that function in an interrelated fashion. Some of the more important components are: soil, atmosphere, radiation from the sun, water, and living organisms.
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The basic branches of Earth Science include sciences like oceanography, geology, astronomy and meteorology. The study of the lithosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth has been made easier thanks to the World Wide Web. The sites that computer users can access provide resources on one or more areas of Earth, which includes geology, geophysics, hydrology, astronomy, climatology, meteorology, oceanography, and \ngeomorphology. Some earth science sites focus on such subjects as climate and global change conditions like erosion, pollution, and deforestation. Additional online resources include maps, texts, journals, study guides for students, educational aids for teachers, and data on pertinent events and government agencies. This section features various online resources on the earth sciences.\n\nFrom Encarta:\nThe earth sciences examine the structure and composition of our planet, and the physical processes that have helped to shape it. Geology focuses on the structure of Earth, while geography is the study of everything on the planet's surface, including the physical changes that humans have brought about from, for example, farming, mining, or deforestation. Scientists in the field of geomorphology study Earth's present landforms, while mineralogists investigate the minerals in Earth's crust and the way they formed (see Mineralogy).\n\nWater dominates Earth's surface, making it an important subject for scientific research. Oceanographers carry out research in the oceans (see Ocean and Oceanography), while scientists working in the field of hydrology investigate water resources on land, a subject of vital interest in areas prone to drought. Glaciologists study Earth's icecaps and mountain glaciers, and the effects that ice has when it forms, melts, or moves. In atmospheric science, meteorology deals with day-to-day changes in weather, but climatology investigates changes in weather patterns over the longer term (see Climate).\n\nWhen living things die their remains are sometimes preserved, creating a rich store of scientific information. Paleontology is the study of plant and animal remains that have been preserved in sedimentary rock, often millions of years ago (see Fossil). Paleontologists study things long dead and their findings shed light on the history of evolution and on the origin and development of humans. A related science, called palynology, is the study of fossilized spores and pollen grains. Scientists study these tiny structures to learn the types of plants that grew in certain areas during Earth’s history, which also helps identify what Earth’s climates were like in the past.
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Yes, during photosynthesis, plants and trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen into the atmosphere.  For this reason, planting trees is encouraged !
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What you want to do is best done by a science called Dendrochronology:\n \nology: the study of \nchronos: time, or more specifically events in past time \ndendros: using trees, or more specifically the growth rings of trees \n\nApplications in dendrochronology include: \necology: insect outbreaks, forest stand structure, past fires\nclimatology: past droughts or cold periods \ngeology: past earthquakes, volcanic eruptions \nanthropology: past construction, habitation, and abandonment of societies\n\nGo to the site in the url and you can learn a lot of real information, not media hype about global warming.\n\nPS. The thermometer was only invented a few hundred years ago. No record of temperatures older than that exists. But old wood lasts for thousands of years and is a true account of local conditions. \n\nEnjoy! It is a fascinating science.
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They can't know, just like we can't.  \n\nThey may be able to read cues and clues like we do, but they are not prognosticators.  \n\nGenerally plants and animals are adapted to the area they live in, and know how to prepare either from experience or even genetic cues.  Also, they always seem to prepare for the worst.  I've seen trees in warm California lose there leaves because they thought winter was coming.  It was, but they could have easily grown through the mild winter.  They were a species adapted to a different climate.\n\nGood question.  It shows you're thinking about your world!
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The only aswer to this is- grow more and more trees. Trees produce oxygen, it helps to increase rainfall, it helps to maintain temperture. so grow more and more trees and save earth.
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they stabilize dust, control erosion, entrap air polluting gases, conserving water and harboring wildlife. Climate control is obtained by moderating the effects of sun, wind, and rain. Radiant energy from the sun is absorbed or deflected by leaves on deciduous trees in the summer and is filtered by their branches in winter. We are cooler when we stand in the shade of trees and are not exposed to direct sunlight. In winter, we value the sun's radiant energy; Wind speed and direction can be affected by trees.\n\nThere are many and many more , hope i could cover the gist.
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Effects of deforestation.\n\nthis can be a local problem with global consequences.\n\ncan be biology and chemsitry (maybe physics as well, heat flows etc.)
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Assessing the age of a living tree is straightforward enough -- just extract a core from the tree's circular trunk and count the number of lines in the core formed by the tree's annual growth rings. (The rings of ancient bristlecone pines like Methuselah are more challenging to count, because the trunks are so distorted that new rings may form at right angles to ones formed long before.) But there's much more information to be gleaned from growth rings than simply a tree's age. This information comes to us through the science of dendrochronology.
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Seed dispersal is the main process linking the spatial pattern of parent plants with that of their offspring (Harper 1977, Howe and Smallwood 1982, Willson 1992, Venable and Brown 1993, Chambers and MacMahon 1994, Schupp and Fuentes 1995). The spatial pattern of dispersed seeds serves as a template for subsequent processes such as predation, germination, competition, and growth that ultimately shape the spatial pattern of adult plants. The basic component of this spatial pattern is usually described by the "dispersal curve," showing the change, typically a rapid decline, in the density of dispersed seeds with increasing distance from the parent plant (Harper 1977, Okubo and Levin 1989, Willson 1993). In investigating the spatial pattern of tree regeneration in tropical forests, Janzen (1970) combined this dispersal curve with two other functions describing the change with distance in the per capita probability of seed survival to maturity (the "survivorship curve"), and in the density of recruits (the popula tion "recruitment curve"). Janzen (1970) and Connell (1971) proposed the escape hypothesis (Howe and Smallwood 1982), suggesting a positive slope of the survivorship curve, determined by the high mortality of progeny (seeds and seedlings) in the vicinity of adult plants, due to seed predators, parasites, pathogens, and seedling herbivores. They predicted that recruitment should occur mostly at some distance away from parent plants, whereas Hubbell (1980) argued that, with realistic dispersal and survivorship curves, recruitment should always be higher near adults because of the disproportionately high seed densities there. McCanny (1985) demonstrated how different slopes of the survivorship curve can produce, out of the same dispersal curve, positive (Janzen-Connell model), zero, and negative (Hubbell's model) slopes of the recruitment curves.
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Genetics and environment and stuff... oh and gravity! Unless if the tree is on a steep hill.  :-)