Climate Regulation
Amanda White
“To become an assembly and think as community is a technology of plant being. Plants are often identified and described as individual species, however in practice they function as communities. Plants assemble to form ecosystems that participate in climate regulation in a variety of ways such as storing carbon, affecting weather through transpiration, cycling nutrients and water, supporting soils, and more. How can we learn from the plants, and adapt a mode of living not as individuals, but as communities that think, live and act together?”
These textile works depict two biomes: tallgrass prairie (grassland) and boreal (forest) ecosystems.
The Boreal Forest (or Taiga) is a vast community, a continuous northern forest region that circles the globe, and the world’s largest land biome. The Boreal is dominated by coniferous trees, it regulates climate in many ways; not least of all as a significant carbon sink. This work imagines the entire network in a section of the forest floor, with the dominant species from different areas of the boreal depicted
(Clockwise from the top): Scots Pine, Larch, Fir, Jack Pine, and Spruce.
Amanda White
The Tallgrass Prairie biome once covered vast amounts of land on this continent. The grasses and plants that form these communities have long and deep roots, storing carbon and contributing to rich soils. Little remains of this biome that was mostly converted to farmland by settlers in the last few hundred years. The dominant species of the tallgrass prairie plant community are shown here
(Left to right): Canada Wild Rye, Little Bluestem, Switchgrass, Yellow Prairie Grass, Big Bluestem.
Amanda White
“Eventually, the planes went up. They looked like tiny needles, piercing into a deep blue that would soon no longer exist. And the world was different after that.”
Quote by Sagan Yee coming fall 2025