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In terms of climate change, there is not much good news. From natural disasters to massive extinctions, its effects are more than worrying.
There is one area where it could have a positive effect: tree growth. A new study found that Dahurian larch in the forests of northern China increased more from 2005 to 2014 than in the previous 40 years.
The growth ring study also found that the oldest trees had the highest growth spurt. Trees over 400 years old have grown 80% faster in those 10 years than in the past 300 years.
In the meantime, tTrees aged 250 to 300 years increased by 35% over this period, while trees under 250 increased by 11 to 13%.
Increased growth, attributed to warming of the soil, benefits trees in the short term but may destroy forests in the long term. In fact, the depth of the permafrost layer is decreasing, allowing tree roots to expand and absorb more nutrients, which promotes their growth.
An ecosystem threatened
However, if this continues, the permafrost under the trees may eventually degrade to such an extent that it can no longer support the trees. This would threaten the entire ecosystem.
"The disappearance of larch would be a disaster for the forest ecosystem of this region," said Xianliang Zhang, an ecologist at the Shenyang Agricultural University in Shenhang, China, and lead author of the new study.
The authors suspect that the oldest trees have experienced the greatest growth because they have a more developed root system that can suck more nutrients in the short term.
"Their arguments logically make a lot of sense as to why trees could benefit from rising ground-surface temperatures in winter, which means that, for example, an earlier spring thaw can actually help trees grow faster. early in the colder months, this sort of thing would make sense for the trees to benefit from the warmer winters in particular, "says Erika Wise, associate professor of geography at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, who did not participate in the new study.
The study is published by AGU & # 39; s Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
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