Forests are growing faster, climate change appears to driving accelerated growth

[OKIsItJustMe]

Apologies if this is a repost. I searched, but couldn't find it.

http://sercblog.si.edu/?p=466

Forests are growing faster, climate change appears to driving accelerated growth

Posted by TinaT on February 1st, 2010

Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study to be published the week of Feb. 1 in the http://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that forests in the Eastern United States are growing faster than they have in the past 225 years. The study offers a rare look at how an ecosystem is responding to climate change.

For more than 20 years forest ecologist Geoffrey Parker has tracked the growth of 55 stands of mixed hardwood forest plots in Maryland. The plots range in size, and some are as large as 2 acres. Parker’s research is based at the http://serc.si.edu/">Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, 26 miles east of the nation’s capital.

Parker’s tree censuses have revealed that the forest is packing on weight at a much faster rate than expected. He and http://www.stri.org/">Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute postdoctoral fellow Sean McMahon discovered that, on average, the forest is growing an additional 2 tons per acre annually. That is the equivalent of a tree with a diameter of 2 feet sprouting up over a year.

Forests and their soils store the majority of the Earth’s terrestrial carbon stock. Small changes in their growth rate can have significant ramifications in weather patterns, nutrient cycles, climate change and biodiversity. Exactly how these systems will be affected remains to be studied.

...

[endless october]

1. while increased CO2 is not good, reforestation is.

would love to see more reforestation, as well as nuclear / green power

i am decidedly pro-tree, though. i suppose that makes me a tree hugger. so be it.

[rfranklin]

2. Don't the trees turn CO2 into O2?

Of course, it would take a lot more trees to compensate for the carbon dioxide we generate.

[OnlinePoker]

3. This is a question I have

Old growth forests should be carbon neutral...the live trees should take in no more CO2 than the ones that have died are giving off in the decomposition process. If this is the case, wouldn't it be better to selectively log old growth forests rather than young forests which are taking in more CO2 than giving off?

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. Recent studies show that old growth forests are better at carbon sequestration

It takes several years for a newly planted forest to become "carbon negative."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=202171&mesg_id=202171

[endless october]

9. it would be more dependent on the amount of photosynthesis going on.

so old, large trees with more leaves might photosynthesize more than growing trees with less leaves.

either way, though, trees are filtering the CO2 to a point.

enough to make anyone hug a tree.

[endless october]

8. yes, and yes.

more trees, please.

[liberal N proud]

5. Mother earth trying to keep up?

She is fighting the greenhouse gasses with oxygen generating plants.

But I am sure that man can beat her and cut down those forest before they do any good.

[patrice]

6. . . . for awhile, anyway.

[Gman2]

7. The ratae of compost will lag, and then, disease.

[WhiteTara]

10. Gaia is trying to balance Herself

while we try to destroy Her.

[madokie]

11. We have trees we planted during the early and mid '90s that are huge trees now

I had to cut a maple a couple years ago that was 8 inches in diameter and it only had 7 growth rings. My personal thoughts on this is since co2 is an important
component of tree life that an increase in it would show an increase in the growth rate of the trees.

[NickB79]

12. In the long term, growth could be hampered if rainfall patterns shift

Right now we may be at that happy medium where there's enough CO2 in the air to boost tree growth, while major climate-related impacts on rainfall haven't been felt yet in much of the eastern US. If we see a return to drought conditions like some the the region saw a few years ago on a regular basis, forest growth will flatline no matter how much CO2 they have available.

[hatrack]

13. Of course, long-term growth at such rates assumes soil nutrients remain constant . . .

And it's very possible that they won't, what with trees growing faster.

Then there are bark and pine beetles . . . .