Eastern forests are growing at faster rates than any time in the previous 225 years, and the reason appears to be climate change — or rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide and a longer growing season. Every other likely reason has been ruled out.
This comes from Smithsonian forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker. His and his colleagues’ research was published this week the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Trees, as we know, take up carbon dioxide. Parker began a census of trees in 55 hardwood plots in Maryland his first day on the job -- Sept. 8, 1987 -- at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md.
Plotting their locations, measuring the trees and factoring in other things foresters know about trees, Parker and post-doc Sean McMahon of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute concluded that more than 90 percent of the stands they were studying grew two to four times faster than a predicted baseline rate.
They also were able to determine that the faster growth is a recent trend, not longstanding.
This is more than merely interesting. Policymakers will no doubt be looking at forests and how much carbon they hold as they seek to address climate change.
Meanwhile, the researchers don’t necessarily expect the higher growth rate to continue indefinitely. At some point, the trees could be limited by their supply of soil nutrients and water.
Good thing you added that last sentence, to preemptively cover you when the growth spurt ends.— Mr. Smith
How bored am I to be reading this?— PhillySubsMac- Remember, we believed East Anglia and Penn State "research" at one time, too.— Barbouze
- Seems like kids are getting bigger too!— ritaf
- Seems like kids are getting bigger too!— ritaf
- Seems like kids are getting bigger too!— ritaf
GreenSpace - her column about how to reduce your carbon footprint in everyday life - appears every other Monday in Health & Science.
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