Nature Journal- Changing Leaves

My family moved from Fort Collins, CO to Austin, TX my freshman year of college. I loved Colorado and really enjoyed growing up there but was excited to hear that my parents were moving to the place they have always wanted to live. Throughout the last few months of Texas fall, I realized just how much I missed experiencing fall in Colorado. Colorado is known for its beautiful, although short, autumnal seasons. The aspen trees change slowly, and then all at once, starting out green and transitioning to a bright yellow color. If you’re lucky and time it just right, you can see the aspens flash bright red up in the mountains. Last class, we discussed Ackerman’s piece about the leaves changing color on trees. I have seen leaves change color every single year but didn’t ever question it, I just accepted it as the way things happened. Reading into detail about the science behind it made the biology major inside me jump for joy! I never realized that the colors were actually there all along and that the beautiful green color of the trees masks up the reds, oranges, and yellows that the colder weather brings out. To the trees, this is merely a survival mechanism. However, to us the observer, it is perceived as beauty. I think there is something to be said about how death, the tree and leaves in this example, brings beauty and new life, the beautiful colored leaves.