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In a warming world, New England's trees are storing more carbon:
Climate change has increased the productivity of forests, according to a new study that synthesizes hundreds of thousands of carbon observations collected over the last quarter century at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research site, one of the most intensively studied forests in the world.
The study, published today in Ecological Monographs, reveals that the rate at which carbon is captured from the atmosphere at Harvard Forest nearly doubled between 1992 and 2015. The scientists attribute much of the increase in storage capacity to the growth of 100-year-old oak trees, still vigorously rebounding from colonial-era land clearing, intensive timber harvest, and the 1938 Hurricane—and bolstered more recently by increasing temperatures and a longer growing season due to climate change. Trees have also been growing faster due to regional increases in precipitation and atmospheric carbon dioxide, while decreases in atmospheric pollutants such as ozone, sulfur, and nitrogen have reduced forest stress.
[...] The trees show no signs of slowing their growth, even as they come into their second century of life. But the scientists note that what we see today may not be the forest's future. "It's entirely possible that other forest development processes like tree age may dampen or reverse the pattern we've observed," says Finzi.
Journal Reference:
Adrien C. Finzi, Marc‐André Giasson, Audrey A. Barker Plotkin, et al. Carbon budget of the Harvard Forest Long‐Term Ecological Research site: pattern, process, and response to global change [$], Ecological Monographs (DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1423)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @09:55PM (2 children)
No "hence" and no "in turn" for you, sir; your visionary zeal is too transparent to cover the black hole of total ignorance.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C4_carbon_fixation [wikipedia.org]
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/global-warming-could-cause-dangerous-increases-in-humidity [yale.edu]
Your own gurus predict increased air humidity, which, as school physics could tell you, slows down evaporation; and tropical plants are specifically optimized by evolution to counter the effect anyway.
Next time, please learn something of science before attempting to "refute" things. Sadly, at the moment, bullshit is firmly lodged in between your ears.
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Saturday August 08 2020, @07:58AM (1 child)
Look, believe whatever you like. I'm over 40. I have no kids. This planet will last the 30-odd years I may have left and after that, I'm beyond caring.
I'm done trying to save the planet for others that don't want to do it themselves. I don't need it any longer than it will last and I have no reason, like kids that I'd care about, to keep it intact for any longer than what it's probably going to last.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 08 2020, @01:24PM
So, you finally reach the age where you start to get taken seriously and have some political influence, and you decide it's not worth your time. Yeah, fuck you too.