Every kid has done it, whether when they were really little or even a teenager. Every kid has committed this act and has had a little fun with it, too. What exactly are these kids doing? Jumping into a pile of leaves, of course! But how did these leaves get into a pile in the first place? No, it wasn’t the rake or leaf blower, it was the magic of seasonal science!
The first thing to know about leaves is they grow and fall off of trees. Although that may seem obvious, leaves are actually a very important part of the tree; leaves create the necessary nutrients the tree needs to grow, along with oxygen for humans. This process is called photosynthesis, and I’m sure we’ve all learned about it, but here’s a quick recap: leaves capture sunlight and draw water and carbon dioxide from the ground and air and turn it into the sugars they need to build new parts of the tree and oxygen that we use.
So we know why leaves are important for the tree, but why do they fall off? And why do they change colors before that happens? Well, it has to do with the placement of the sun. When the sun bears down directly onto the plants in the spring and summer, the leaves can fully utilize their chlorophyll for maximum sugar production, but in the fall when there is less sunlight, other structures in the cell capture different colors of light to supplement the loss of chlorophyll production. This, in turn, changes the color of the leaf, and, in the winter, the leaf falls off as a mechanism of the tree to conserve energy for even less sunlight.
So where do they go after that? One moment they’re a pile of fun, and the next they’re just gone! Well, the ground and soil is littered with tiny organisms called microbes. These microbes act as decomposers, destroying the structure of the leaf and recycling the nutrients for plant growth in the spring. All of this then repeats, and we get to experience the mellow fall and the vibrant spring year after year.
Every kid has done it, whether when they were really little or even a teenager. Every kid has committed this act and has had a little fun with it, too. What exactly are these kids doing? Jumping into a pile of leaves, of course! But how did these leaves get into a pile in the first place? No, it wasn’t the rake or leaf blower, it was the magic of seasonal science!
The first thing to know about leaves is they grow and fall off of trees. Although that may seem obvious, leaves are actually a very important part of the tree; leaves create the necessary nutrients the tree needs to grow, along with oxygen for humans. This process is called photosynthesis, and I’m sure we’ve all learned about it, but here’s a quick recap: leaves capture sunlight and draw water and carbon dioxide from the ground and air and turn it into the sugars they need to build new parts of the tree and oxygen that we use.
So we know why leaves are important for the tree, but why do they fall off? And why do they change colors before that happens? Well, it has to do with the placement of the sun. When the sun bears down directly onto the plants in the spring and summer, the leaves can fully utilize their chlorophyll for maximum sugar production, but in the fall when there is less sunlight, other structures in the cell capture different colors of light to supplement the loss of chlorophyll production. This, in turn, changes the color of the leaf, and, in the winter, the leaf falls off as a mechanism of the tree to conserve energy for even less sunlight.
So where do they go after that? One moment they’re a pile of fun, and the next they’re just gone! Well, the ground and soil is littered with tiny organisms called microbes. These microbes act as decomposers, destroying the structure of the leaf and recycling the nutrients for plant growth in the spring. All of this then repeats, and we get to experience the mellow fall and the vibrant spring year after year.
