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Boreal forests to suffer from warming

According to new research from the University of Arizona, boreal forests will not benefit from climate change.

The traditional thinking goes like this: Forests in colder climates such as Alaska and Canada will do better as temperatures warm because they’ll experience longer growing seasons. As they grow, these boreal (northern) forests will absorb increasing amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which in turn will slow down global warming. The effect is called boreal greening.

But a team of researchers at UA came to the opposite conclusion, determining that most of the boreal forests in North America will likely do worse as the climate warms.

“That’s one of the most surprising results,” said Valerie Trouet, an associate professor with the Tree-Ring Research Laboratory. “We don’t see that the trees in the boreal forest are going to do better. On the contrary, there will be the opposite effect.”

See the full article in the Tucson Sentinel.

July 25, 2016  By  Scott Jamieson