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In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that typically lie below the surface of the soil. Roots can also be aerial or aerating, that is, growing up above the ground or especially above water. Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either (see rhizome). Therefore, the root is best defined as the non-leaf, non- nodes bearing parts of the plant's body. There are important internal structural differences between stems and roots.

The fossil record of roots-or rather, infilled voids where roots rotted after death-spans back to the late Silurian, about 430 million years ago. Their identification is difficult, because casts and molds of roots are so similar in appearance to animal burrows. They can be discriminated using a range of features.

The first root that comes from a plant is called the radicle. A root's four major functions are:

1. absorption of water and inorganic nutrients;

2. anchoring of the plant body to the ground, and supporting it;

3. storage of food and nutrients;

4. vegetative reproduction and competition with other plants.

In response to the concentration of nutrients, roots also synthesise cytokinin, which acts as a signal as to how fast the shoots can grow. Roots often function in storage of food and nutrients. The roots of most vascular plant species enter into symbiosis with certain fungi to form mycorrhizae, and a large range of other organisms including bacteria also closely associate with roots.

When dissected, the arrangement of the cells in a root is root hair, epidermis, epiblem, cortex, endodermis, pericycle and, lastly, the vascular tissue in the centre of a root to transport the water absorbed by the root to other places of the plant.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of roots that distinguishes them from other plant organs such as stem-branches and leaves is that roots have an endogenous origin, i.e., they originate and develop from an inner layer of the mother axis, such as pericycle. In contrast, stem-branches and leaves are exogenous, i.e., they start to develop from the cortex, an outer layer.

In its simplest form, the term root architecture refers to the spatial configuration of a plant's root system. This system can be extremely complex and is dependent upon multiple factors such as the species of the plant itself, the composition of the soil and the availability of nutrients.

The configuration of root systems serves to structurally support the plant, compete with other plants and for uptake of nutrients from the soil. Roots grow to specific conditions, which, if changed, can impede a plant's growth. For example, a root system that has developed in dry soil may not be as efficient in flooded soil, yet plants are able to adapt to other changes in the environment, such as seasonal changes.

Root architecture plays the important role of providing a secure supply of nutrients and water as well as anchorage and support. The main terms used to classify the architecture of a root system are:

Branch magnitude: the number of links (exterior or interior).

Topology: the pattern of branching, including:

1. Herringbone: alternate lateral branching off a parent root

2. Dichotomous: opposite, forked branches

3. Radial: whorl(s) of branches around a root

Link length: the distance between branches.

Root angle: the radial angle of a lateral root's base around the parent root's circumference, the angle of a lateral root from its parent root, and the angle an entire system spreads.

Link radius: the diameter of a root.

All components of the root architecture are regulated through a complex interaction between genetic responses and responses due to environmental stimuli. These developmental stimuli are categorised as intrinsic, the genetic and nutritional influences, or extrinsic, the environmental influences and are interpreted by signal transduction pathways. The extrinsic factors that affect root architecture include gravity, light exposure, water and oxygen, as well as the availability or lack of nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, aluminium and sodium chloride. The main hormones (intrinsic stimuli) and respective pathways responsible for root architecture development include:

Auxin - Auxin promotes root initiation, root emergence and primary root elongation.

Cytokinins - Cytokinins regulate root apical meristem size and promote lateral root elongation.

Gibberellins - Together with ethylene they promote crown primordia growth and elongation. Together with auxin they promote root elongation. Gibberellins also inhibit lateral root primordia initiation.

Ethylene - Ethylene promotes crown root formation.

Early root growth is one of the functions of the apical meristem located near the tip of the root. The meristem cells more or less continuously divide, producing more meristem, root cap cells (these are sacrificed to protect the meristem), and undifferentiated root cells. The latter become the primary tissues of the root, first undergoing elongation, a process that pushes the root tip forward in the growing medium. Gradually these cells differentiate and mature into specialized cells of the root tissues.

Growth from apical meristems is known as primary growth, which encompasses all elongation. Secondary growth encompasses all growth in diameter, a major component of woody plant tissues and many nonwoody plants. For example, storage roots of sweet potato have secondary growth but are not woody. Secondary growth occurs at the lateral meristems, namely the vascular cambium and cork cambium. The former forms secondary xylem and secondary phloem, while the latter forms the periderm.

In plants with secondary growth, the vascular cambium, originating between the xylem and the phloem, forms a cylinder of tissue along the stem and root. The vascular cambium forms new cells on both the inside and outside of the cambium cylinder, with those on the inside forming secondary xylem cells, and those on the outside forming secondary phloem cells. As secondary xylem accumulates, the "girth" (lateral dimensions) of the stem and root increases. As a result, tissues beyond the secondary phloem including the epidermis and cortex, in many cases tend to be pushed outward and are eventually "sloughed off" (shed).

At this point, the cork cambium begins to form the periderm, consisting of protective cork cells containing suberin. In roots, the cork cambium originates in the pericycle, a component of the vascular cylinder.

The vascular cambium produces new layers of secondary xylem annually. The xylem vessels are dead at maturity but are responsible for most water transport through the vascular tissue in stems and roots.

Tree roots usually grow to three times the diameter of the branch spread, only half of which lie underneath the trunk and canopy. The roots from one side of a tree usually supply nutrients to the foliage on the same side. Some families however, such as Sapindaceae (the maple family), show no correlation between root location and where the root supplies nutrients on the plant.

There is a correlation of roots using the process of plant perception to sense their physical environment to grow, including the sensing of light, and physical barriers. Plants also sense gravity and respond through auxin pathways, resulting in gravitropism. Over time, roots can crack foundations, snap water lines, and lift sidewalks. Research has shown that roots have ability to recognize 'self' and 'non-self' roots in same soil environment.

The correct environment of air, mineral nutrients and water directs plant roots to grow in any direction to meet the plant's needs. Roots will shy or shrink away from dry or other poor soil conditions.

Gravitropism directs roots to grow downward at germination, the growth mechanism of plants that also causes the shoot to grow upward.

In order to avoid shade, plants utilize a shade avoidance response. When a plant is under dense vegetation, the presence of other vegetation nearby will cause the plant to avoid lateral growth and experience an increase in upward shoot, as well as downward root growth. In order to escape shade, plants adjust their root architecture, most notably by decreasing the length and amount of lateral roots emerging from the primary root. Experimentation of mutant variants of Arabidopsis thaliana found that plants sense the Red to Far Red light ratio that enters the plant through photoreceptors known as phytochromes. Nearby plant leaves will absorb red light and reflect far- red light which will cause the ratio red to far red light to lower. The phytochrome PhyA that senses this Red to Far Red light ratio is localized in both the root system as well as the shoot system of plants, but through knockout mutant experimentation, it was found that root localized PhyA does not sense the light ratio, whether directly or axially, that leads to changes in the lateral root architecture. Research instead found that shoot localized PhyA is the phytochrome responsible for causing these architectural changes of the lateral root. Research has also found that phytochrome completes these architectural changes through the manipulation of auxin distribution in the root of the plant. When a low enough Red to Far Red ratio is sensed by PhyA, the phyA in the shoot will be mostly in its active form. In this form, PhyA stabilize the transcription factor HY5 causing it to no longer be degraded as it is when phyA is in its inactive form. This stabilized transcription factor is then able to be transported to the roots of the plant through the phloem, where it proceeds to induce its own transcription as a way to amplify its signal. In the roots of the plant HY5 functions to inhibit an auxin response factor known as ARF19, a response factor responsible for the translation of PIN3 and LAX3, two well known auxin transporting proteins. Thus, through manipulation of ARF19, the level and activity of auxin transporters PIN3 and LAX3 is inhibited. Once inhibited, auxin levels will be low in areas where lateral root emergence normally occurs, resulting in a failure for the plant to have the emergence of the lateral root primordium through the root pericycle. With this complex manipulation of Auxin transport in the roots, lateral root emergence will be inhibited in the roots and the root will instead elongate downwards, promoting vertical plant growth in an attempt to avoid shade.

Research of Arabidopsis has led to the discovery of how this auxin mediated root response works. In an attempt to discover the role that phytochrome plays in lateral root development, Salisbury et al. (2007) worked with Arabidopsis thaliana grown on agar plates. Salisbury et al. used wild type plants along with varying protein knockout and gene knockout Arabidopsis mutants to observe the results these mutations had on the root architecture, protein presence, and gene expression. To do this, Salisbury et al. used GFP fluorescence along with other forms of both macro and microscopic imagery to observe any changes various mutations caused. From these research, Salisbury et al. were able to theorize that shoot located phytochromes alter auxin levels in roots, controlling lateral root development and overall root architecture. In the experiments of van Gelderen et al. (2018), they wanted to see if and how it is that the shoot of Arabidopsis thaliana alters and affects root development and root architecture. To do this, they took Arabidopsis plants, grew them in agar gel, and exposed the roots and shoots to separate sources of light. From here, they altered the different wavelengths of light the shoot and root of the plants were receiving and recorded the lateral root density, amount of lateral roots, and the general architecture of the lateral roots. To identify the function of specific photoreceptors, proteins, genes, and hormones, they utilized various Arabidopsis knockout mutants and observed the resulting changes in lateral roots architecture. Through their observations and various experiments, van Gelderen et al. were able to develop a mechanism for how root detection of Red to Far-red light ratios alter lateral root development.

A true root system consists of a primary root and secondary roots (or lateral roots).

the diffuse root system: the primary root is not dominant; the whole root system is fibrous and branches in all directions. Most common in monocots. The main function of the fibrous root is to anchor the plant.

The roots, or parts of roots, of many plant species have become specialized to serve adaptive purposes besides the two primary functions, described in the introduction.

Adventitious roots arise out-of-sequence from the more usual root formation of branches of a primary root, and instead originate from the stem, branches, leaves, or old woody roots. They commonly occur in monocots and pteridophytes, but also in many dicots, such as clover (Trifolium), ivy (Hedera), strawberry (Fragaria) and willow (Salix). Most aerial roots and stilt roots are adventitious. In some conifers adventitious roots can form the largest part of the root system.

Aerating roots (or knee root or knee or pneumatophores): roots rising above the ground, especially above water such as in some mangrove genera (). In some plants like Avicennia the erect roots have a large number of breathing pores for exchange of gases.

Aerial roots: roots entirely above the ground, such as in ivy (Hedera) or in epiphytic orchids. Many aerial roots are used to receive water and nutrient intake directly from the air - from fogs, dew or humidity in the air. Some rely on leaf systems to gather rain or humidity and even store it in scales or pockets. Other aerial roots, such as mangrove aerial roots, are used for aeration and not for water absorption. Other aerial roots are used mainly for structure, functioning as prop roots, as in maize or anchor roots or as the trunk in strangler fig. In some Epiphytes - plants living above the surface on other plants, aerial roots serve for reaching to water sources or reaching the surface, and then functioning as regular surface roots.

Canopy roots/arboreal roots: forms when tree branches support mats of epiphytes and detritus, which hold water and nutrients in the canopy. Tree branches send out canopy roots into these mats, likely to utilize the available nutrients and moisture.

Contractile roots: these pull bulbs or corms of monocots, such as hyacinth and lily, and some taproots, such as dandelion, deeper in the soil through expanding radially and contracting longitudinally. They have a wrinkled surface.

Coarse roots: roots that have undergone secondary thickening and have a woody structure. These roots have some ability to absorb water and nutrients, but their main function is transport and to provide a structure to connect the smaller diameter, fine roots to the rest of the plant.

Dimorphic root systems: roots with two distinctive forms for two separate functions

Fine roots: typically primary roots <2 mm diameter that have the function of water and nutrient uptake. They are often heavily branched and support mycorrhizas. These roots may be short lived, but are replaced by the plant in an ongoing process of root 'turnover'.

Haustorial roots: roots of parasitic plants that can absorb water and nutrients from another plant, such as in mistletoe (Viscum album) and dodder.

Propagative roots: roots that form adventitious buds that develop into aboveground shoots, termed suckers, which form new plants, as in Canada thistle, cherry and many others.

Proteoid roots or cluster roots: dense clusters of rootlets of limited growth that develop under low phosphate or low iron conditions in Proteaceae and some plants from the following families Betulaceae, Casuarinaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Moraceae, Fabaceae and Myricaceae.

Stilt roots: these are adventitious support roots, common among mangroves. They grow down from lateral branches, branching in the soil.

Storage roots: these roots are modified for storage of food or water, such as carrots and beets. They include some taproots and tuberous roots.

Structural roots: large roots that have undergone considerable secondary thickening and provide mechanical support to woody plants and trees.

Surface roots: these proliferate close below the soil surface, exploiting water and easily available nutrients. Where conditions are close to optimum in the surface layers of soil, the growth of surface roots is encouraged and they commonly become the dominant roots.

Tuberous roots: fleshy and enlarged lateral roots for food or water storage, e.g. sweet potato. A type of storage root distinct from taproot.

The distribution of vascular plant roots within soil depends on plant form, the spatial and temporal availability of water and nutrients, and the physical properties of the soil. The deepest roots are generally found in deserts and temperate coniferous forests; the shallowest in tundra, boreal forest and temperate grasslands. The deepest observed living root, at least 60 metres below the ground surface, was observed during the excavation of an open-pit mine in Arizona, USA. Some roots can grow as deep as the tree is high. The majority of roots on most plants are however found relatively close to the surface where nutrient availability and aeration are more favourable for growth. Rooting depth may be physically restricted by rock or compacted soil close below the surface, or by anaerobic soil conditions.

Certain plants, namely Fabaceae, form root nodules in order to associate and form a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia. Due to the high energy required to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, the bacteria take carbon compounds from the plant to fuel the process. In return, the plant takes nitrogen compounds produced from ammonia by the bacteria.

Plants can also interact with one another in their environment through their root systems. Studies have demonstrated that plant-plant interaction occurs among root systems via the soil as a medium. For instance, Novoplanksy and his students at Ben-Gurion University in Israel tested whether plants growing in ambient conditions would change their behavior if a nearby plant was exposed to drought conditions. His team wondered if plants can communicate to their neighbors of nearby stressful environmental conditions.

To investigate this, Novoplansky and his team set up a "split root" experimental design, in which a plant's roots were split between two pots (say, Pot A and Pot B). A second plant's roots were then placed between two pots, such that half its roots were in the same pot as Plant 1 (Pot B), and half its roots in a new pot (Pot C). A third plant was chained to the first two plants, in which plant 3's roots were split between sharing Pot C with the second plant's roots and a new Pot D, and so on. In the study, six pea plants ( Pisum sativum) were chained together in seven pots.

Drought was stimulated by adding mannitol, a sugar commonly used to initiate drought responses in plant studies, to Pot A such that only half the roots of the plant 1 were subjected to drought conditions. The other six pots remained well watered and weren't exposed to mannitol. After adding mannitol to the soil of Pot A, that plant 1's stomata closed within fifteen minutes even though half its roots remained in the well-watered soil of Pot B. Novoplansky's team collected stomatal aperture data using epidermal impressions. This result wasn't surprising, since stomatal closing as a drought response has been widely studied; in this response, Abscisic Acid (ABA) is produced in the roots and sent up to leaves to close the stomates. However, the stomata of plant 2, with half its roots sharing Pot B with half the roots of the first plant, also closed within 15 minutes of mannitol addition to Pot A. This observation suggested that a signal from the drought-induced roots in Pot A travelled to the non-stressed roots of the same plant, which caused them to release a drought signal into Pot B's soil.

Stomatal closing at the leaves of the other plant neighbors in the remaining pots was also measured, albeit at a longer time after the mannitol treatment in Pot A. These results implied that the drought signal was relayed to plants five pots away from the stress origin. Neighboring plants placed in separate pots directly next to Pot A showed no changes in stomatal aperture, which confirmed that the drought signal spread through the roots and soil, not through the air as a volatile chemical signal. Novoplansky and his team concluded that information about environmental conditions must be communicated through root systems, implying that plant communication occurs among roots of the same plant and nearby plants as well. Further research is underway as to how the plants sense drought and respond by emitting a chemical drought signal into the soil to alert nearby roots of stressful conditions. As of now, the chemical signal is unknown, as is the physiological mechanism by which this response occurs.

The term root crops refers to any edible underground plant structure, but many root crops are actually stems, such as potato tubers. Edible roots include cassava, sweet potato, beet, carrot, rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, radish, yam and horseradish. Spices obtained from roots include sassafras, angelica, sarsaparilla and licorice.

Sugar beet is an important source of sugar. Yam roots are a source of estrogen compounds used in birth control pills. The fish poison and insecticide rotenone is obtained from roots of Lonchocarpus spp. Important medicines from roots are ginseng, aconite, ipecac, gentian and reserpine. Several legumes that have nitrogen-fixing root nodules are used as green manure crops, which provide nitrogen fertilizer for other crops when plowed under. Specialized bald cypress roots, termed knees, are sold as souvenirs, lamp bases and carved into folk art. Native Americans used the flexible roots of white spruce for basketry.

Tree roots can heave and destroy concrete sidewalks and crush or clog buried pipes. The aerial roots of strangler fig have damaged ancient Mayan temples in Central America and the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Trees stabilize soil on a slope prone to landslides. The root hairs work as an anchor on the soil.

Vegetative propagation of plants via cuttings depends on adventitious root formation. Hundreds of millions of plants are propagated via cuttings annually including chrysanthemum, poinsettia, carnation, ornamental shrubs and many houseplants.

Roots can also protect the environment by holding the soil to reduce soil erosion. This is especially important in areas such as sand dunes.

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13. Zahniser, David (February 21, 2008) ^ "City to pass the bucks on sidewalks?" Archived 2015-04-17 at the Wayback Machine Los Angeles Times

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This article Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the is missing information about details on function, root-environment/soil interactions. talk page. In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that typically lie below the surface of the soil.

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Biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate): Biomimicry is the science that imitates nature ...

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How exactly does one turn sunlight and water into usable energy? If it were possible to ask any living organism on Earth this question, you could do far better than asking a biologist or a chemist, or any other human being for that matter, and take the question directly to a leaf. That's the goal of biomimicry: to take human problems and ask nature "how would you solve this?" And increasingly, such questions are changing everything, from energy to information technology to the way we build cities.
Click to launch the photo gallery
To see how a leaf works its magic, look no further than Dr. Daniel Nocera's lab at MIT. Yesterday, Nocera's team announced that it has created the first practical "artificial leaf", a synthetic silicon device that splits water into oxygen and hydrogen for fuel cells using sunlight just as a natural leaf does. Nocera's leaf isn't a perfect mimic of photosynthesis--for instance, it requires materials like nickel and cobalt that must be extracted from the earth, and catalysts that spur reactions that otherwise wouldn't happen on their own. But it's indicative of a growing shift in how humans solve big problems by looking to nature for elegant solutions rather than bending the natural world to their wills.

With its 4.5-billion-year head start on mankind, the natural world has developed some clever mechanisms for solving big problems, and that natural cleverness isn't just informing new ways to generate energy. It's slowly but surely informing everything from the the way emergency rooms are designed to how data networks communicate. It asks that electricity grids act like bees and businesses manage resources like coral reefs manage calories. Seriously.

"Biomimicry is a beautiful way of framing the design process to be cognizant of how nature does things," says Dr. John Warner of the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry. "I think that over the centuries humans have become a little egotistical in trying to bend materials and things to our will."

Warner and his colleagues are on the science side of biomimicry's collaboration between biology and design. As a green chemist, he and his lab develop new environmentally benign materials often borrowing from natural processes along the way. In Warner's world, gone are the heat, high pressures, and toxic additives native to much man-made chemistry, replaced with processes that hew more closely to the way nature creates materials.

On the other side of that equation are the engineers looking for new and better materials with which to design. And increasingly there's a stronger dialogue between the two, driven partially by an increased environmental consciousness but moreso by a pressing imperative to solve big, overarching problems at the macro scale.

Take Nocera's leaf for instance: in light of an always-looming global energy (and environmental) crisis, a means to generate electricity from plentiful (and renewable) water and sunlight could solve a number of huge problems, both natural and man made. The answer is right there in the leaf, and has been for millennia--unlock that natural mechanism in a feasible, economically viable manner and you've got a beautiful solution to problems ranging from the environmental to the humanitarian to the geopolitical.

"When you think about the natural world, nature outperforms us in its diversity, in its complexity, but does so at ambient temperature, at low pressures, using water for the most part as a solvent." Warner says. By helping humans to think more like a leaf (or an ant hill, or a 1,200-year-old oak, or a bacterial colony), biomimicry is tapping that multi-billion-year head start to bring the same kind of complexity and diversity to human invention.

Click through to the gallery to see six ways bio-inspired solutions are reshaping the world in the 21st century.

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Six Ways Bio-Inspired Design is Reshaping the Future

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How exactly does one turn sunlight and water into usable energy? If it were possible to ask any living organism on Earth this question, you could do far better than asking a biologist or a chemist, or any other human being for that matter, and take the question directly to a leaf.

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TECHNOLOGY The tread pattern on a new, sphere-shaped concept tire was inspired by the whorls of brain coral. (BBC) See how other engineers are inspired by nature. Teachers, scroll down for a quick …

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Beetles and Bears Inspire Technologies

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Namib desert beetles collect faint water droplets on their exquisitely designed outer surfaces so they can survive in their dry environments. And polar bears keep a tight grip on smooth ice using precisely designed footpads. Engineers have copied these exquisite designs to make useful tools.

The Namib desert beetle, a native of southwestern Africa, possesses a unique survival mechanism: its back comes studded with tiny bumps that attract water droplets from the extremely dry desert air. However, its back is also a slick surface which repels water. The bumps and slick surface direct water into the beetle's mouth. Researchers at Virginia Tech copied the beetle's bumpy patterns to a silicon surface. ¹ Their new material may someday control frost on strategic places such as airplane windshields.

By deploying a water-attracting pattern right on top of a water-repelling surface, the researchers engineered a material that controls and possibly prevents the spread of frost. Considering all the dollars spent on defrosting machine parts around the world, this design could significantly cut costs.

A separate project copied patterns on polar bear feet and used the design in car snow-tires that are already on the market.

Ian Sterling, author of the 1998 book Polar Bears, wrote that he once had a professional inspect polar bear feet.

Microscopic examination of polar bear feet reveals their ice-handling design features. It turned out that the pads of a polar bear's foot are covered with small soft papillae [small bumps], which increase friction between the foot and the ice. There are also small depressions in the sole, but their role is less clear. ²

Those small depressions probably absorb the thin layer of water that covers ice. When the Bridgestone tire company designed their Blizzak ice tire, they used a unique rubber manufacturing process that incorporated similar small depressions.

A product explanation video on their website clearly illustrates the value of these tiny water pockets. ³ When water wicks into the pockets, tire rubber contacts the rocky ice beneath. But Blizzak tires also use sharp bite particles that dig into the ice like little ice picks. Bridgestone engineers sprinkled these hardened particles throughout the rubber. Online videos of cars driving on ice reveal the result: a tire that can actually grip ice. ⁴

Of course a God who created the heavens, Earth, sea, and everything in them would be wise enough and more than able to design ice-gripping bear paw pads and water-controlling beetle surfaces. He also deserves credit for making man in His image, so that we can use our God-given wisdom to study and benefit from His excellent designs.

1. Beetle-inspired engineering could lessen energy costs associated with controlling frost. Virginia Tech News. Posted on vtnews.vt.edu January 25, 2016, accessed February 1, 2016.

2. Stirling, I. and D. Guravich. 1998. Polar Bears. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI: 25.

3. Blizzak Winter Tire Technology: MultiCell Compound.

4. Nicole, B. Getting a Grip on Winter Driving. SAHM Reviews. Posted on sahmreviews.com November 2014, accessed February 1, 2016.

*Mr. Thomas is Science Writer at the Institute for Creation Research.

Article posted on February 12, 2016.

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Namib desert beetles collect faint water droplets on their exquisitely designed outer surfaces so they can survive in their dry environments. And polar bears keep a tight grip on smooth ice using precisely designed footpads. Engineers have copied these exquisite designs to make useful tools.

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Dear readers, welcome to another update on our pet tadpole which metamorphosed into a frog! (Unfortunately, only one tadpole managed to morph and the others did not survive due to aggression between tadpoles during the stage of metamorphosis) Our pet tadpole (now turned frog) is alive and healthy!

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CLEVELAND (Oct. 11, 2011)-Polar bears, gekkos and sea mussels have been helping Bridgestone Corp. design tires with better traction, according to Bob Handlos, vice president of Bridgestone Americas Center for Research and Technology, who delivered the keynote address Oct. 11, during the Rubber Expo in Cleveland.

Handlos said Bridgestone has been delving into biomimicry, adapting the features of polar bears' paws, gekkos' gripping ability and sea mussels' ability to grasp wet rocks to design better tire traction.

He also discussed numerous ways Bridgestone is being environmentally responsible in reducing manufacturing waste, recycling tires and helping local nature parks at its facilities around the world.

The new research center Bridgestone is constructing in is expected to be gold LEED certified for environmentally-friendly features. The new building will reduce Bridgestone's carbon footprint by 90 percent compared with the 100-year-old Firestone building in which the research center is currently housed.
For more news from the Rubber Expo, visit www.rubbernews.com/rubberexpo

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Rubber Division keynoter talks of biomimicry in tires

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CLEVELAND (Oct. 11, 2011)-Polar bears, gekkos and sea mussels have been helping Bridgestone Corp. design tires with better traction, according to Bob Handlos, vice president of Bridgestone Americas Center for Research and Technology, who delivered the keynote address Oct. 11, during the...

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It can be difficult for animals to live in places that receive large amounts of snow, such as in the high latitudes and at high elevations. Snowy places tend to receive less sunlight, which decreases temperatures and makes it hard for animals to stay warm. Deep snow can also be difficult to move around in; animals must spend more time and energy walking through it or finding food beneath it.

During winter, animals often must contend with deep snow, which makes movement difficult. These caribou are walking in single file; a lead animal will break a trail through the snow, and the rest of the herd follows in its tracks.
-Credit: peupleloup, flickr

Adaptations

Some animals have adapted to co-exist with the cold. Deer, elk, bison, and other grazing animals use their hooves and muzzles to clear snow away from plants they need to eat to survive. To help retain warmth throughout the winter, they also grow thicker, shaggier coats, which they shed in the spring when the weather becomes warm again.

Elk and other grazing animals often have to dig through snow to graze during winter.
-Credit: Timothy K. Hamilton, flickr

Other animals, like the snowshoe hare, develop ways to travel on top of deep snow. Snowshoe hares have large hind feet, and they can spread their toes to act like snowshoes, which helps them walk on the surface of deep snow without falling through. Similarly, the ptarmigan, a bird common to the Rocky Mountains, saves energy by walking on top of the snow with its feather-covered feet.

The ptarmigan's feathered feet act as snowshoes, distributing its weight and preventing it from sinking into the snow.
-Credit: Jean-Guy Dallaire, flickr

The pika, another Rocky Mountain native, dries little bundles of hay in the fall, then brings this food under the snow to spend the winter. The Arctic fox, which must deal with the cold, snowy conditions of the Arctic all year, grows thick fur all the way down to the bottoms of its paws. It has a stocky body, short legs, and small ears, all of which conserve body heat.

A pika enjoys a reprieve from the snow in Rocky Mountain National Park.
-Credit: Ann Schonlau, National Park Service

During cold periods, frogs, snakes, and other amphibians and reptiles slow their body processes almost to a stop, using up their energy very slowly. Some insects have adapted a lifecycle that follows the seasons. They grow and reproduce during the summer months, then die in the fall, leaving their offspring in protective cocoons that will open the following spring.

Hibernation

Deep snow can prevent some animals from finding food, but it also acts like a blanket, keeping the ground beneath it warmer than the surrounding air temperature. Some animals take advantage of snow's insulation, and cope with the cold season by building in a protective den or burrow and going into a deep, long sleep, a process called hibernation. Bears and groundhogs, for instance, build up fat reserves in the fall so they can survive hibernating through the snowy winter months, usually not waking again until spring.

Migration

Some animals simply leave snowy, cold regions during the toughest seasons. Arctic terns, for example, spend the Northern Hemisphere summer in the Arctic, and then migrate to Antarctica for the Southern Hemisphere summer, traveling about 39,000 kilometers (24,000 miles) round-trip each year. Migration can also happen over shorter distances: Deer and elk in the Rocky Mountains of the United States tend to migrate down into valleys during the winter.

The timing of spring snowmelt and autumn snowfall also affects migration. North American salmon populations typically migrate downstream when melting ice and snow swell rivers. Many migratory water birds take advantage of the 24-hour sunlight and extensive food supplies available during the Arctic summertime. But the timing of birds' breeding and nesting depends on when particular regions in the Arctic become snow-free each spring. Some populations nest in Greenland, where snow melts later in the spring season, and there is a smaller window of opportunity for the species migrating there. Arctic areas of Europe, Asia, and Alaska, however, have recently experienced earlier springtime thawing, resulting in more snow-free patches and longer summer seasons for migrating birds.

For more information see Snow Resources.

Last updated: 10 January 2020

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It can be difficult for animals to live in places that receive large amounts of snow, such as in the high latitudes and at high elevations. Snowy places tend to receive less sunlight, which decreases temperatures and makes it hard for animals to stay warm.

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You never know what you're going to get with your trail camera. I set one low to the ground at an otter rolling site, hoping to get nice photos of a big, wet weasel, and it just so happened that a moose came by. So there you are, a nice closeup of shiny hooves, stubby dew claws, and hairy legs. Honestly, what struck me about those feet is their curious resemblance women's shiny pumps with high heels...But we'll lay that aside for now. What I really want to focus on is how the structure of moose hooves and legs benefits the animal.

Moose Hooves and Legs

Moose are a northern species. They range from the northern US up through Canada and Alaska, where they spend many months walking in snow. In deep, soft substrate like snow or mud, the dewclaws touch the ground and the split hoof can splay. This increases the surface area of the foot supporting the moose's weight and, like snowshoes, help prevent the animal from sinking. Hooves can also scrape away snow to reveal food on the ground. In spring and summer, when moose take to the wetlands in search of succulent aquatic vegetation, hooves function as paddles for strong swimming. The phrase "good swimmer" might not come to mind when you consider a moose's body type, but, according to some sources, they can swim up to 6 miles per hour.

One of the most striking features of the moose's physique is its long legs. They, too, are well adapted to the moose's seasonal activities. In winter, long legs allow the animal to walk efficiently through deep snow, and to reach higher into the trees for choice browse. In summer, long legs allow it to wade into ponds and lakes.

For an interesting comparison, have a look at caribou feet. Compared to moose hooves, the caribou hoof is rounder and the dewclaws larger, providing an even greater snowshoe affect. In fact, the caribou's foot is twice as effective in deep snow as the moose's foot: The caribou's body weight per unit area of its foot print, is only half that of the moose's.

Cannings, R. et al. 2015 British Columbia: A Natural History of Its Origins, Ecology, and Diversity. 3rd Edition. Greystone Books, Vancouver/Berkeley

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Moose Hooves and Legs: Great Adaptations - Winterberry Wildlife

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
You never know what you're going to get with your trail camera. I set one low to the ground at an otter rolling site, hoping to get nice photos of a big, wet weasel, and it just so happened that a moose came by.