Kimberley Maker, a masters degree student at SNRAS, is conducting a study to assess sap production by birch in interior Alaska. The study, a United States Department of Agriculture New Crops II and III project, is quantifying sap flow (volume and timing), sap chemistry (cation presence and sugar concentrations and components), and the relationship of sap productivity to environmental factors such as temperature. Maher is checking for the presence of seventeen different cations (mineral ions with a positive charge), such as calcium, magnesium, and potassium. Among the cations for which she has tested is arsenic, which appears only in low amounts, meaning that birch apparently does not concentrate this poisonous element--good news for syrup producers. She is also looking at factors such as soil moisture around the trees and their position on a slope.
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